Doctoral Candidate
Research Assistant
Hayley Leake is a physiotherapist and a doctoral candidate at the University of South Australia (UniSA) under the supervision of Professor Lorimer Moseley. She is a member of the pain research group headed by Dr James McAuley, and the Centre for Pain IMPACT at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). Her doctoral research centres around optimising pain education interventions for adolescents with chronic pain. Hayley’s research includes a systematic review exploring mechanisms of treatments for paediatric pain; a Delphi-survey for consensus on learning objectives of adolescent pain science education; and a mixture of qualitative studies exploring how youth and their parents understand pain. Hayley’s research has been presented at national (Australian Pain Society) and international conferences (International Symposium on Pediatric Pain).
Follow Hayley’s research below and here: Google Scholar and ORCID.
Medicines are the most common treatment for back pain. The aim of this program of research is to improve our understanding of the clinical effects of medicines.
Studies currently in progress:
Completed studies:
Medicines for Back Pain – Publications:
Medicines for Back Pain – Registrations of Study Protocols:
YANNICK GILANYI Honours Student : y.gilanyi@neura.edu.au
BRISHNA SHAH Honours Student : b.shah@neura.edu.au
JACK DEVONSHIRE Research Assistant : j.devonshire@neura.edu.au
HARRISON HANSFORD Doctoral Candidate : h.hansford@neura.edu.au
THIAGO FOLLY Research Assistant
ANIKA HAIGH Research Assistant : a.haigh@neura.edu.au
PAULINE ZAHARA Clinical Trial Manager
DR IAN SKINNER Postdoctoral Research Fellow
The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of medicines targeting neurotrophins in patients with LBP and sciatica. This systematic review and meta-analysis will assess the evidence for the efficacy and safety of NGF inhibitors for pain in patients with nonspecific LBP and sciatica. The inclusion of new studies and unpublished data may improve the precision of the effect estimates and guide regulatory actions of the medications for LBP and sciatica.
Hamstring injuries in athletes can lead to significant time away from competition as a result of persistent posterior thigh pain. These cases are often difficult to treat as the state of the tissues alone cannot explain symptoms. In non-athletic populations with persistent pain, disruptions to tactile, proprioceptive, and spatial cortical representations exist, which has led to promising brain-based treatments. Here, we explored whether athletes with persistent posterior thigh pain also display impairments in these cortical representations. Leg-specific tactile, proprioceptive, and spatial processing deficits exist in athletes with persistent posterior thigh pain. That these processing deficits exist despite rehabilitation and normal tissue healing time suggests they may play a role in the persistence of posterior thigh pain.