Current Research Projects

Sharma (PI)
Neurophysiological Response to Manual Therapy Intervention  

Completed Projects

Sharma (PI)
Opioid and rehabilitation following lumbar spine surgery: a cross-sectional study
Great Plains Consortium – KU Medical Center Internal Grant
The purpose of this study was to compare pain management and physical therapy rehabilitation services, and investigate quality of pain medication and functional data availability across Great Plains Consortium sites.

Sharma (PI)
Vitamin C Supplementation for Lumbar Spine Surgical Patients
KU School of Health Professions Pilot Grant

The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility and effectiveness of vitamin C supplementation on lumbar spine surgery recovery in a small randomized controlled trial.

Sharma (PI)
The Use of Yoga for Post-Lumbar Spine Surgical Pain Management during Hospitalization
Frontier Pilot Funding Program
The purpose of this study was to test feasibility of the use of a tailored yoga program offered during an inpatient hospital stay and to determine its effectiveness in pain and anxiety reduction, and increasing the functional ability in those post lumbar spine laminectomy and fusion.

Sharma (PI)
Brain Morphometry in People with Low Back Pain: Implication to Physical Therapy
Orthopedic Section, American Physical Therapy Association
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether people with sub-acute and chronic low back pain have brain volumetric differences compared to healthy controls and whether these differences are associated with clinical features of low back pain.

Sharma (PI)
Patient-perceived effort to maximum lifting capacity with two lifting methods for functional capacity evaluation
Bardavon Innovations
The purpose of this grant was to determine the accuracy of subjects to estimate maximum lifting capacity on box lift and Lever Arm lifts and correlation between subjects’ estimate of max lift and actual workload between both lifts.

Sharma (PI)
Cortical Changes Following Physical Therapy Intervention in Subacute Low Back pain: A Pilot Study
Foundation, American Physical Therapy Association
This pilot grant examined cortical changes and effects of physical therapy intervention (exercise training and manual therapy) in people with subacute low back pain.

Sharma (PI)
Brain Spectroscopy Following Exercise Training in Chronic Low Back Pain
KL2 National Institutes of Health
Hartland Institute for Clinical & Translational Research
The purpose of this grant was to quantify cortical brain metabolites in chronic low back pain and following an exercise intervention.

Sharma (Co-I)
Engaging the lumbar range of motion during dynamic lifting tasks in nursing N
IH/NIAMS (PA-13-302: Research Project Grant- Parent R01)
The purpose of this study was to investigate lumbar-pelvic coordination patterns in people with history of LBP and during nursing related functional tasks.

Current Student Research Projects

T32 Summer Trainees

The goal of the KU Training Program in Neurological and Rehabilitation Sciences is to provide pre-doctoral interdisciplinary training in translational research in basic and clinical aspects of neuroscience, especially as it applies to neurological conditions amenable to rehabilitative treatments.

Physical therapy doctoral students in the T32 program having been under mentorship of Neena Sharma include Jackie Vaughan (2018), Andrew Doyle (2018), Emily Gundy (2014), Christian Busch (2013), Brianna Cowley (2012) Patrick Gorman (2011), and Angela Lentz (2010).

Past Student Research Projects

Kosaku Aoyagi (mentor: Neena Sharma)
Project title: Phenotyping Chronic Low Back Pain Patients with Central Sensitization
The aims of this study were to capture characteristics of people with chronic low back pain who also represented symptoms of central sensitization, and sub-grouped them from the entire population with chronic low back pain.

Fahed Mehyar (mentor: Neena Sharma)
Title: Neuromuscular control following spinal manual therapy
There is a wide variability in quantifying grades of spinal mobilization. The objective of this study was to develop a new method to quantify spinal mobilization. The second aim of this study was to examine neuromuscular effects of manual therapy.

Zaid Mansour (mentor: Neena Sharma)
Title: Brain Volume in Chronic Low Back Pain
Recent studies suggest central nervous changes in chronic low back pain. The purpose of this study was to examine brain volume in chronic low back pain and following conservative interventions.

Gurpreet Singh (mentor: Neena Sharma)
Title: Balance Training in People with Parkinson’s Disease
The project included analysis of gait and balance impairments and effects of static and dynamic balance training in individuals with Parkinson's disease.

Krista Sanchez, M.S. (mentor: Neena Sharma)
Title: Neuromuscular Control of Lumbar Spine in People with Chronic Low Back Pain
The project examined seated sway balance in people with and without chronic low back pain.

Saddam Kanaan, Ph.D., PT (mentor: Neena Sharma)
Title: Predicting Health Care Needs Following Lumbar Spine Surgeries
The project included retrospective and prospective longitudinal studies. The aim of this project was to use large scale database and prospective pre-surgery, intra-surgery, and post-surgery data to build prediction models for short and long term outcomes following lumbar spine surgeries.