It is Germany's oldest scientific prize in the field of pain research – and this year, a scientist from the SFB/TRR 289 “Treatment Expectation” has won first place: At the German Pain Congress 2024 in Mannheim, Dr. Helena Hartmann and her colleague Dr. Julian Packheiser were honored with the Pain Research Award.
Applause for excellent research: Julian Packheiser accepts the award for pain research at the German Pain Congress. His colleague Helena Hartmann was unable to be there herself.
Since 1987, the German Pain Society has honored the work of young scientists who have “made a significant contribution to the interdisciplinary, practice-oriented treatment of acute and chronic pain” with its Pain Research Award. It is awarded in two categories: First and second place are awarded in the areas of clinical research and basic research respectively. Dr. Hartmann and Dr. Packheiser won first place in the clinical research category. The prize was donated by the company Grünenthal GmbH from Aachen, and the first prizes are endowed with 7,000 euros each.
The two researchers were recognized for their findings on the astonishingly beneficial effects of even brief touch in medical treatments: Such touch can effectively support therapy, particularly for pain, depression and anxiety. Their paper “A systematic review and multivariate meta-analysis of the physical and mental health benefits of touch interventions” was published in April 2024 in the journal Nature Human Behavior.
Dr. Helena Hartmann is a psychologist, neuroscientist and postdoc in Prof. Ulrike Bingel's Bingellab at the University Hospital Duisburg-Essen. She heads the new SC project on science communication in our Collaborative Research Center. Dr. Julian Packheiser is a postdoc at the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Ruhr University Bochum.