Register for the 30th Napa Pain Conference

Distinguished Professor & Director, University of Florida, Pain Research and Intervention Center of Excellence
Past President, The American Pain Society (APS)

Roger B. Fillingim, PhD is a Distinguished Professor in the University of Florida (UF) College of Dentistry and Director of the UF Pain Research & Intervention Center of Excellence. Dr. Fillingim earned his doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in pain research at the University of North Carolina. His research investigates biological and psychosocial contributions to individual differences in pain, including the influences of sex/gender, race/ethnicity and aging on the experience of pain. Dr. Fillingim’s research applies multiple methods to elucidate biopsychosocial contributions to pain, including laboratory pain testing, measurement of psychosocial factors, and assessments of biological markers, including neuroimaging. For more than 12 years, Fillingim was a principal investigator for the OPPERA (Orofacial Pain: Prospective Evaluation and Risk Assessment) Study, a prospective cohort study designed to identify causal risk factors for the development of temporomandibular disorders and related chronic overlapping pain conditions. Dr. Fillingim also leads the multi-center UPLOAD (Understanding Pain and Limitations in Osteoarthritic Disease) study, which has investigated mechanisms underlying ethnic group differences in pain and disability among older adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA). The project’s current cycle is testing the independent and combined effects of transcranial direct current stimulation and mindfulness meditation on pain processing and brain function in adults with knee OA.

Dr. Fillingim’s research has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1994, including a current MERIT award from the National Institute on Aging. He has published more than 450 peer-reviewed papers and has delivered plenary and keynote addresses at numerous international conferences. Dr. Fillingim also has served in national leadership positions, including a term as President of the American Pain Society (APS) from 2012-14, and he currently serves as Secretary/Treasurer for the International Mentoring Association.

Sessions at Neurovations Events

2019 Napa Pain Conference

  • How Our Understanding of Pain is Evolving: New & Emerging Targets for the Clinical & Scientific Research of Pain
  • Where vs. Why: Central Contributions to Regional Pain Conditions

2018 Napa Pain Conference

  • Let’s Get Personal: Using Genetic & Non-genetic Factors to Guide Treatment
  • Osteoarthritis: Central Mechanisms & Ethnic Group Differences
  • Altered Central Pain Pathway & Ethnic Disparities in the Severity of Pain & Rates of Disability

2017 Kaua’i Pain Conference

  • Patient Empowerment Through Behavioral Medicine
  • Ethnic Differences in the Perception of Pain

Awards

  • Wilbert E. Fordyce, Clinical Investigator Award, American Pain Society
  • Distinguished Service Award, American Pain Society
  • University of Florida Foundation Preeminence Term Professorship

Select Publications

Fillingim, R.B. (2017). Individual differences in pain: understanding the mosaic that makes pain personal. Pain, 158 (Suppl): S11-18.

Ahn, H., Woods, A. J., Kunik, M.E., Bhattacharjee, A., Chen, Z., Choi, E., & Fillingim, R.B. (2017). Efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation over primary motor cortex (anode) and contralateral supraorbital area (cathode) on clinical pain severity and mobility performance in persons with knee osteoarthritis: An experimenter- and participant-blinded, randomized, sham-controlled pilot clinical study. Brain Stimulation, 10: 902-909.

Fillingim, R.B., Slade, G.D., Greenspan, J.D., Dubner, R., Maixner, W., Bair, E., Ohrbach, R. (2018). Long-term changes in biopsychosocial characteristics related to temporomandibular disorder: findings from the OPPERA Study. Pain, 159: 2403-2413.

Corbett, D.B., Simon, C.B., Manini, T.M., George, S.Z., Riley, J.L.III & Fillingim, R.B. (2019). Movement-evoked pain: transforming the way we understand and measure pain. Pain, 160: 757-761.

Terry, E.L., Booker, S.Q., Cardoso, J.S., Sibille, K.T., Bartley, E.J., Glover, T.L., Vaughn, I.A., Thompson, K.A., Bulls, H.W., Addison, A.S., Staud, R., Hughes, L.B., Edberg, J.C., Redden, D.T., Bradley, L.A., Goodin, B.R. & Fillingim, R.B. (2020). Neuropathic-like symptoms in a community-dwelling sample with or at risk of knee osteoarthritis. Pain Medicine, 21: 125 – 137.

Fillingim, R.B., Ohrbach, R., Greenspan, J.D., Sanders, A.E., Rathnayaka, N., Maixner, W. & Slade, G.D. (2020). Associations of psychological factors with multiple chronic overlapping pain conditions. Journal of Oral & Facial Pain and Headache, 34 (Suppl): s85-s100.

Booker, S.Q., Bartley, E.J., Powell-Roach, K., Palit, S., Morais, C., Thompson, O.J., Cruz-Almeida, Y., & Fillingim, R.B. (2021). The imperative for racial equality in pain science: a way forward. Journal of Pain, 22: 1578-1585.

George, S.Z., Bishop, M.D., Wu, S.S., Staud, R., Borsa, P.A., Wallace, M.R., Greenfield, W.H. 3rd, Dai, Y., Fillingim, R.B. (2022). Biopsychosocial influence on shoulder pain: results from a randomized pre-clinical trial of exercise-induced muscle injury. Pain, 164: 305-315.

Zajacova, A., Grol-Prokopczyk, H., Fillingim, R. (2022). Beyond Black vs White: racial/ethnic disparities in chronic pain including Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and multiracial US adults. Pain, 163: 1688-1699.

Cruz-Almeida, Y., Johnson, A., Meng, L., Sinha, P., Rani, A., Yoder, S., Huo, Z., Foster, T.C. & Fillingim, R.B. (2022). Epigenetic age predictors in community-dwelling adults with high impact knee pain. 18:17448069221118004.