$7.5M/year for 5 yrs up for grabs for CPPS study!

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NIH is putting some serious money out there, get your applications in soon!

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa- ... 7-003.html

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The clinical and basic research studies developed by the NIDDK and the research community have had a traditional focus on the bladder and the prostate as the origins of disease for UCPPS. However, recent epidemiological studies have shown that other conditions that share chronic pain as a major symptom are often associated with UCPPS, including fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome; vulvodynia and migraine headache may also be associated with UCPPS, but the epidemiological evidence for this relationship is currently less compelling. These findings suggest the possibility of a common underlying pathophysiology in chronic pain disorders. However, these intriguing associations and their implications to disease development have not been adequately addressed in studies of UCPPS. In addition, many traditional urologic-focused research efforts addressing UCPPS have not emphasized novel and innovative approaches or incorporated expertise from related fields of investigation. Also, basic, translational, and clinical researchers have had insufficient formal opportunities for collaboration in addressing common goals. It has become apparent that the traditional concepts and strategies driving UCPPS research are in need of significant redirection, including the introduction of new and novel methodologies and the involvement of related disciplines, in order to address the many long standing deficiencies in our understanding of these disorders.

In light of these insights, the NIDDK proposes that the urologic and LUT centered focus of UCPPS (i.e. IC/PBS and CP/CPPS) research should be broadened to a systemic view of disease in which the interplay between the LUT and other physiological systems is stressed. The NIDDK is emphasizing that studies of UCPPS be expanded to include new and novel methodologies and approaches involving a diversity of urologic and non-urologic clinical, translational, and basic science disciplines. To promote these ideas in the study of UCPPS, the NIDDK is proposing a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of chronic pelvic pain (MAPP). The MAPP Research Network will adopt multi-site, multi-disciplinary, highly collaborative, and new and novel approaches utilizing traditional urologic and non-urologic expertise to address key questions in our understanding of UCPPS. It is anticipated this effort will lead to critical new insights into the underlying basis and risk for UCPPS, as well as the potential associations of UCPPS with co-morbid disorders, which have the potential for translation into future prevention and treatment strategies for patients. In addition, in a separate but complementary effort, the NIDDK is working to develop new and more comprehensive research definitions/criteria for UCPPS that will adopt the idea of systemic disease. It is anticipated that these new definitions/criteria will enable MAPP Network researchers and the research community at large to identify more specific and relevant patient profiles for IC/PBS and CP/CPPS.

In other words, the NIH/NIDDK is finally coming round to what we've known for some time already: that the prostate itself is not the sole or even primary cause of pain in CPPS (same goes for the bladder in IC). The pace of change is glacial, my friends, but it is happening!