Gilles Lavigne, Ph.D.

Faculty of Dentistry, Université de Montréal
Director of the Pain, Sleep and Traumatology Laboratory
Holder of the Canada Research Chair on Pain, Sleep and Traumatic injuries
514-343-2310 (message).
gilles.lavigne@umontreal.ca

Training

Ph.D. in Dentistry (University of Toronto)
Certificate in Oral Medicine (Georgetown University)
M.Sc. in Neurological Sciences (Université de Montréal)
D.M.D. (Université de Montréal)

Research interests

Clinical neurophysiology of sleep and pain, as well as specific disorders including sleep bruxism, sleep apnea, and periodic leg movements during sleep. Psychophysiology of vigilance and pain. Placebo effects of analgesia, and the influence of analgesia (morphine and other opiods on sleep). Orofacial pain and oral medicine.

Methodological approaches

Polysomnography, spectral analysis of cardiac variability and cerebral activity, morphology of respiratory waves in relation to oromandibular and nasal structure, and psychophysiological pain evaluations using quatitative methods.

Fundings

Canada Research Chair
Co-investigators on grants from provincial and national agencies (Daoust R, De Beaumont L)

My team

Alberto Herrero Babiloni

Ph.D. candidate

Jacqueline Lam

Ph.D. candidate

Selected publications

Maluly M, Dal Fabbro C, Andersen ML, Herrero Babiloni A, Lavigne GJ, Tufik S. Sleep bruxism and its associations with insomnia and OSA in the general population of Sao Paulo. Sleep Med. 2020 Nov;75:141-148. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2020.06.016. Epub 2020 Jun 20.PMID: 32858352

Herrero Babiloni A, Beetz G, Tang NKY, Heinzer R, Nijs J, Martel MO, Lavigne GJ. Towards the endotyping of the sleep-pain interaction: a topical review on multitarget strategies based on phenotypic vulnerabilities and putative pathways.

Pain. 2020 Oct 23;Publish Ahead of Print. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002124. Online ahead of print.PMID: 33105436

Aarab G, Arcache P, Lavigne GJ, Lobbezoo F, Huynh N. The effects of mandibular advancement appliance therapy on jaw-closing muscle activity during sleep in patients with obstructive sleep apnea: a 3-6 months follow-up.

J Clin Sleep Med. 2020 Sep 15;16(9):1545-1553. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.8612.PMID: 32501212

Suzuki Y, Rompré P, Mayer P, Kato T, Okura K, Lavigne GJ. Changes in oxygen and carbon dioxide in the genesis of sleep bruxism: a mechanism study.J Prosthodont Res. 2019 May 31. pii: S1883-1958(18)30446-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jpor.2019.04.012. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 31160246 OR

Chouchou F, Dang-Vu TT, Rainville P, Lavigne G. The Role of Sleep in Learning Placebo Effects. Int Rev Neurobiol. 2018;139:321-355. doi: 10.1016/bs.irn.2018.07.013. Epub 2018 Jul 31.

Laverdure-Dupont, D., Rainville, P., Renancio, C., Montplaisir, J., Lavigne, G. Placebo analgesia persists during sleep: an experimental study. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry. 2018 Apr 6;85:33-38. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2018.03.027. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 29631002

Suzuki, Y, Arbour, C, *Khoury, S, Giguère, J.F., Denis, R, DeBeaumont, L, Lavigne, G.J. Does sleep bruxism contribute to headache-related disability after mild traumatic brain injury? A case-control study. J Orofacial Pain and Headache. Fall;31(4):306–312. doi: 10.11607/ofph.1878. Epub 2017 Oct 3. PMID: 28973052

Projects

Pain, Sleep and Trauma

Between 10-30% of the population, depending on age, report chronic pain and nearly 2/3 of these patients have complaints of non-restful sleep. A night of poor sleep (fragmented by too many awakenings, limb movements, breathing abnormalities) exacerbates pain and a day with pain disrupts the initiation and maintenance of sleep. There can therefore be a pattern, a vicious cycle between pain and sleep, which can reduce the quality of life and daytime alertness and promote anxiety and mood disorders. Among the factors that initiate or maintain pain in relation to sleep disorders, there is the patient's history: poor sleep habits, anxiety or depressive disorders, a tendency to dramatize events, sleep diseases (insomnia, periodic movements of the legs, respiratory apnea-hypopnea). In addition, certain predispositions or vulnerabilities may be involved, such as a sensory disturbance causing hypervigilance in the presence of pain.

The Pain, Sleep and Traumatology laboratory aims to understand the pain-sleep interaction in populations with musculoskeletal pain, headaches, acute or chronic post-trauma pain. On one hand, we are trying to better target the biological (enzymatic, genetic), medical (co-morbidities) and psychophysiological (cyclical activities of the central and autonomic nervous systems) factors that can help initiate or maintain the vicious pain-sleep cycle. in some individuals and not in others. On the other hand, we have a series of projects aimed at understanding the effect of sleep on analgesia known as Placebo (effect of conditioning and expectations of relief) and on sleep loss in connection with the analgesic use of counter-pain (opioid analgesics or other) or the low effectiveness of counter-pain if sleep is disturbed. Finally, the study of bruxism (teeth grinding) during sleep has enabled our laboratory to better understand the links between excessive muscle activity, pain, breathing and an intense one-off activation of the cardiac autonomic nervous system. This research is funded by a Canada Research Chair in Pain, Sleep and Head Injury, the CIHR and the FRSQ - Quebec Pain Research Network.