# Characterizing brain dynamic biomarkers of fentanyl using intracranial and high-density electroencephalogram in humans

> **NIH NIH R01** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2022 · $743,289

## Abstract

Opioid overdose deaths remain a major public health problem in the US. It is now recognized that surgery and
post-operative pain are major contributors to persistent opioid use and dependence. Inadequate management
of intraoperative nociception can lead to increased post-operative pain, which can lead to increased opioid
utilization, chronic pain, opioid dependence, and opioid abuse. In this perioperative setting a major challenge
is that patients are either unconscious (in the operating room) or heavily sedated (in the post-anesthesia care
unit) and cannot report their pain levels. In these scenarios, anesthesiologists and nurses can only guess the
opioid requirements for their patients, as they have no means to measure opioid drug effects in real-time. A
real-time measurement of opioid drug effects, if it existed, would allow anesthesiologists and nurses to
precisely titrate opioids and could significantly improve post-operative pain management and subsequent rates
of opioid utilization, dependence, and overdose. Over the past two years my laboratory has developed a real-
time biomarker for opioid drugs that could be used to provide more precise titration of opioid drugs and for drug
discovery applications. In this project we propose to investigate the mechanisms underlying this biomarker
and develop further translational science to support clinical application of this biomarker.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10501397
- **Project number:** 1R01DA056593-01
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Patrick L. Purdon
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $743,289
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-08-01 → 2027-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10501397

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10501397, Characterizing brain dynamic biomarkers of fentanyl using intracranial and high-density electroencephalogram in humans (1R01DA056593-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10501397. Licensed CC0.

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