The central scientific premise of the proposed study is that sleep disruption (SD) will
influence individuals' subjective response to blinded medication administration. The
investigators further believe these responses will vary among patients who have chronic low
back pain (CLBP) vs. healthy controls, and that sex will moderate effects.
The proposed study evaluates whether CLBP patients' subjective responses to study medication
administration are altered by SD. The investigators focus on two outcome domains: abuse
liability (i.e., drug liking and valuation) and response to pain testing.
The investigators propose a mixed between-within randomized crossover human-laboratory
experiment that investigates placebo-controlled effects of study medication on 1) abuse
liability metrics (Drug Liking and Monetary Valuation) and 2) response to laboratory-evoked
standardized pain measures, after one night of uninterrupted sleep (US) and again after one
night of SD. The investigators will recruit both CLBP patients(*) and healthy controls (N =
60).
(*) We originally aimed to accrue 60 subjects with CLBP. However, we have been granted
approval by NIDA to reduce expectations for the target N for the CLBP cohort. We are no
longer expected to recruit N=60 CLBP participants; this is a COVID-19 modification, and we
are not required to re-do a power analysis.