Apr 27, 2021
Dr. Jennifer Rabbitts, MD a Board certified pediatric anesthesiologist and prolific pain researcher studies pain and health outcomes including the influence of sleep and other factors on pain outcomes in the short and long term.
Sleep and pain have a bidirectional relationship, but it appears that sleep has the upper hand determining the sensitivity, intensity and duration of pain. Sleep as an important pillar of health, exerts its influence in many domains and many ways.
In this episode she discusses her findings on the salient ways in which sleep influences pain and other health outcomes of children undergoing surgery, both in the immediate peri-operative and post-operative period.
Takeaways in This Episode
- How Dr. Rabbitts became interested in children's pain management
- Why it is important to be studying the relationship between sleep and pain
- Host of factors in the hospital which influence the quantity and quality of sleep during the peri-operative period
- The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommendations on the optimal amount of sleep for children and adolescents and whether it should be altered around surgery
- Duration and stages of the impact of sleep disruptions after surgery
- Whether and how sleep may play a role in development of persistent and chronic pain
- How much reduction in sleep is needed for impacting the pain outcomes after surgery
- A surprising finding that completely surprised me about sleep disruption and opioids in adolescents
- Recommendations for change in clinical practice around sleep and surgery
- Differences in the peri-operative outcomes of children with sleep disordered breathing/sleep apnea and children with acute sleep disruptions
- Dr Rabbitts' recommendations for clinicians around sleep in the peri-operative period
Links
Contact Dr. Rabbitts : Email, twitter
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Clinicians Pain Evaluation Toolkit
About the Guest
Jennifer Rabbitts, MD is a board certified pediatric anesthesiologist and pediatric pain researcher at Seattle Children’s Hospital. She’s an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Washington.
Dr. Rabbits completed her medical school in South Africa and her residency and fellowship training at the Mayo clinic. Her work is focused on prevention and management of acute postoperative pain in children. Studying risk factors that predict which children will develop severe and longer lasting postoperative pain and investigating ways to modify them.
Her research has earned her several awards even from her residency days and she’s also been the recipient of the young investigator award, the future leaders in Pain research award from the American Pain Society.