Sylvia Gustinprofile image
Professor

Sylvia Gustin


Current Appointments

Senior Principal Research Scientist (Conjoint)
Director, Centre for Pain IMPACT, NeuRA Rebecca L. Cooper Senior Research Fellow, NeuRA & UNSW Chair, ENIGMA Chronic Pain Working Group Registered Psychologist, AHPRA
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Professor Sylvia Gustin is the Rebecca L. Cooper Senior Research Fellow and Senior Principal Research Scientist at NeuRA. She is Director of the Centre for Pain IMPACT at NeuRA, Director of the NeuroRecovery Research Hub at the UNSW and leads the Pain Research, Education and Management Program at UNSW and NeuRA. She is also Chair of the ENIGMA chronic pain working group.

Sylvia completed her Ph.D. at the University of Tuebingen, Germany in 2006 in Psychology and immigrated to Australia in 2007. Since then Sylvia has been using brain imaging techniques and psychological assessment to investigate the central and psychological circuits underlying chronic pain and spinal cord injury.

Sylvia has 25 years of experience in the use of brain imaging techniques including functional, structural and biochemical magnetic resonance imaging. In addition, she has practiced as a psychologist focusing on the management of chronic pain and spinal cord injury. Her aim is to increase our understanding of the development and maintenance of chronic pain and spinal cord injury, in particular psychological and central components and their association with each other. And, most importantly, to develop and evaluate novel interventions that can provide pain relief and touch restoration via the primary source of pain and sensation: the brain.

Sylvia’s research is supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), Rebecca L. Cooper Medical Research Foundation, International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), Wings for Life, US Department of Defence (DoD), NSW Defence Innovation Network and NSW Health.

"My team's research program forms a translational pipeline where our basic science research informs the development of novel therapeutic interventions that are translated to improve the lives of people with a disorder affecting the brain and spine including chronic pain, mental health and neurological disorders. Our program brings together a multi-disciplinary team of passionate researchers aiming to effectively treat these conditions using cutting-edge science research methods and novel technology-based interventions."


Publications

2024 Sep

Emotion regulation skills‐focused interventions for chronic pain: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.2268

2024, 03 Jul

Posttraumatic stress-related white matter microstructure alterations and chronic pain

View full preprint on https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.02.24309869

2024, 09 May

Posttraumatic stress symptoms in chronic pain: impacts on brain morphology

View full preprint on https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.09.24307012

2023, 07 Jun

Internet-Delivered Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Skills Training for Chronic Pain: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.2196/41890

2023 May

Depressive symptoms moderate functional connectivity within the emotional brain in chronic pain

View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2023.61

2023 May

“My Back is Fit for Movement”: A Qualitative Study Alongside a Randomized Controlled Trial for Chronic Low Back Pain

View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2022.12.009

2022 Nov

Evaluation of emotion-centric psychological interventions for chronic pain: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063102

2022, 16 Aug

Internet-Delivered Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Skills Training for Chronic Pain: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

View full preprint on https://doi.org/10.2196/preprints.41890

2022 Mar

The analgesic effect of electroencephalographic neurofeedback for people with chronic pain: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.15189

2022, 15 Feb

Is chronic pain an affective disorder? Moderation of resting-state functional connectivity within the emotional brain by depressive symptoms

View full preprint on https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.11.22270877