An innovative study, led by a team of researchers from the Kolling Institute, has the potential to change the way osteoarthritis and low back pain are managed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than $4.7 million has been awarded to the project through the Medical Research Future Fund\u2019s program for early to mid-career researchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Study lead Associate Professor Michelle Hall said we know that chronic muscle pain and poor sleep often go hand-in-hand, yet sleep is rarely addressed in standard musculoskeletal care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cOur program however, will target insomnia as a first line treatment for a range of musculoskeletal pain conditions, including hip and knee osteoarthritis, and low back pain,\u201d said the University of Sydney researcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese conditions are the leading cause of disability worldwide and co-exist with poor sleep. We know that insomnia affects up to 80 per cent of people with chronic musculoskeletal pain, and poor sleep actually worsens chronic pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur ground-breaking program will measure the impact of adding cognitive behavioral therapy to physiotherapy care for people with muscle pain and insomnia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis type of therapy is a proven treatment for both sleep and chronic pain, yet it is not routinely offered due to limited psychologist availability and funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPhysiotherapists are well-positioned to address this care gap, given they typically manage people with chronic musculoskeletal conditions and are more widely available than clinical psychologists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur approach could also represent a significant financial saving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEarlier trials have demonstrated a reduction in medication use and costs, and given the $7 billion cost of medications for osteoarthritis and low back pain each year, the projected savings could exceed $60 million a year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The program will be adopted across nine public hospitals in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia, and will involve seven Australian universities and a UK institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cWe would like to thank the many consumers and partners who have helped us develop this project. It has the potential to be upscaled and could improve models of care and patient outcomes for a large number of people across Australia and internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are looking forward to progressing this important research and reducing the severity of pain experienced by the community.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2503,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[44,12,13,16,15],"tags":[],"research-group-tax":[],"primary-research-area":[],"class_list":["post-2501","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-funding-support","category-musculoskeletal-research","category-neuroscience-pain-research","category-new-treatment","category-research-excellence"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/root_Blog_Final-MRFF-1-scaled.png",2560,1407,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/root_Blog_Final-MRFF-1-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/root_Blog_Final-MRFF-1-300x165.png",300,165,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/root_Blog_Final-MRFF-1-768x422.png",768,422,true],"large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/root_Blog_Final-MRFF-1-1024x563.png",1024,563,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/root_Blog_Final-MRFF-1-1536x844.png",1536,844,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/root_Blog_Final-MRFF-1-2048x1125.png",2048,1125,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"ict-wordpress-support@sydney.edu.au","author_link":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/author\/ict-wordpress-supportsydney-edu-au\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"An innovative study, led by a team of researchers from the Kolling Institute, has the potential to change the way osteoarthritis and low back pain are managed. More than $4.7 million has been awarded to the project through the Medical Research Future Fund\u2019s program for early to mid-career researchers. Study lead Associate Professor Michelle Hall…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5169,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2501\/revisions\/5169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2501"},{"taxonomy":"research-group-tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-group-tax?post=2501"},{"taxonomy":"primary-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary-research-area?post=2501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}