Overview
Background
Dr Jonathan Davies is a chronic pain researcher working to improve how pain is understood, assessed and treated. His research focuses on pain phenotyping, precision pain care, and the psychological, physiological and contextual factors that shape pain and treatment response.
At UQ’s Centre for Innovation in Pain and Health Research, he contributes to DISCERN, an NHMRC Synergy-funded multidisciplinary research program developing and validating new approaches to pain assessment. A major focus of his work is DECIPHER PAIN, a standardised, multimodal tool designed to characterise the relative contributions of nociceptive, neuropathic and nociplastic pain and support more personalised care.
His research integrates clinical assessment, quantitative sensory testing, experimental pain methods, psychophysiology, digital health and population data. He is particularly interested in how physiological signals, behaviour, language, psychosocial context and real-world health data can be combined to better understand individual differences in pain and treatment outcomes.
His broader expertise includes placebo and nocebo effects, mindfulness, mental health, quality of life, health outcome measurement and population health. His work aims to support more precise, scalable and patient-centred approaches to pain research and care.
Availability
- Dr Jonathan Davies is:
- Available for supervision
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Doctoral (Research) of Psychology, University of Sydney
Research interests
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Precision Pain Assessment and Phenotyping
I develop and validate tools to improve the assessment and classification of chronic pain. My research combines patient-reported outcomes, quantitative sensory testing, clinical assessment and digital technologies to identify pain phenotypes and support more personalised diagnosis and treatment.
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Population Health Research and Research Infrastructure
I develop population-scale research resources, including longitudinal cohorts, national surveys and digital research platforms, to improve understanding of chronic pain and accelerate precision pain research. My interests include real-world data, research infrastructure, participant engagement and data harmonisation across studies.
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Pain Mechanisms and Pain Psychology
My research investigates the biological, psychological and social processes that contribute to chronic pain. I have a particular interest in nociceptive, neuropathic and nociplastic pain, and how cognitive and contextual factors influence pain perception and clinical outcomes.
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Placebo, Nocebo and Contextual Effects
I study placebo and nocebo effects, treatment expectancy, therapeutic alliance and other contextual influences on health outcomes. My work aims to understand how these mechanisms can be ethically incorporated into clinical care and rigorously controlled in clinical trials.
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Digital Health and Clinical Decision Support
I develop digital health approaches that integrate multimodal clinical data to support precision pain care. My interests include digital phenotyping, clinical decision support, implementation science and the translation of research tools into routine healthcare.
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Psychophysiology and Experimental Pain
I use experimental pain models together with psychophysiological measures including electroencephalography (EEG), heart rate variability (HRV) and electrodermal activity to investigate mechanisms of pain perception, treatment response and symptom modulation.
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Mindfulness and Non-pharmacological Pain Management
My research examines mindfulness and related non-pharmacological approaches for pain management, with a particular focus on the mechanisms underlying mindfulness-based analgesia and the role of expectancy and contextual factors in treatment response.
Research impacts
Dr Jonathan Davies’ research aims to improve how pain, wellbeing and treatment experiences are understood, measured and translated into better care.
His population-health and outcomes research has generated nationally representative evidence on meditation, mindfulness, yoga, and related contemplative practices in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. He has also contributed to work with the EuroQol Group to refine the EQ-HWB measure using normative Australian population data, supporting more robust assessment of mental health and wellbeing related quality of life in research and health-economic evaluation.
His methodological work has contributed to the development and validation of tools that improve the quality and safety of contemplative and behavioural research. This includes the Inventory of Meditation Experiences (IME), which helps identify and characterise adverse effects associated with meditation, and the Standardised Open-source Mindfulness Architecture (SOMA), which provides a transparent and reproducible framework for designing and reporting mindfulness-based interventions.
His current work within DISCERN is focused on advancing DECIPHER PAIN, a standardised, multimodal approach to pain phenotyping. The team is seeking MRFF Critical Research Infrastructure funding to build and deploy the tool as sustainable national research infrastructure, with the aim of enabling more consistent pain characterisation across studies and creating a pathway toward future clinical assessment and personalised pain care.
In parallel, planned knowledge-exchange and translation work will engage clinicians, end-users, designers and regulatory stakeholders to co-design the digital platform and physical sensory-testing components for real-world use. This work is intended to improve clinical relevance, usability, adoption, commercial viability and readiness for future implementation.
Across these programs, he works with clinicians, consumers and multidisciplinary researchers to translate complex science into practical tools, stronger evidence and more patient-centred approaches to research and care.
Works
Search Professor Jonathan Davies’s works on UQ eSpace
2020
Journal Article
The efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions in acute pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Shires, Alice, Sharpe, Louise, Davies, Jonathan N. and Newton-John, Toby R.O. (2020). The efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions in acute pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Pain, 161 (8), 1698-1707. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001877
2014
Journal Article
Lived-experience participation in nurse education: Reducing stigma and enhancing popularity
Happell, Brenda, Byrne, Louise, Platania-Phung, Chris, Harris, Scott, Bradshaw, Julie and Davies, Jonathan (2014). Lived-experience participation in nurse education: Reducing stigma and enhancing popularity. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 23 (5), 427-434. doi: 10.1111/inm.12077
2011
Journal Article
Designing a thalamic somatosensory neural prosthesis: Consistency and persistence of percepts evoked by electrical stimulation
Heming, Ethan A., Choo, Ryan, Davies, Jonathan N. and Kiss, Zelma H.T. (2011). Designing a thalamic somatosensory neural prosthesis: Consistency and persistence of percepts evoked by electrical stimulation. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 19 (5) 5776684, 477-482. doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2011.2152858
2011
Journal Article
Bipartite syntaxin 1A interactions mediate CaV2.2 calcium channel regulation
Davies, Jonathan N., Jarvis, Scott E. and Zamponi, Gerald W. (2011). Bipartite syntaxin 1A interactions mediate CaV2.2 calcium channel regulation. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 411 (3), 562-568. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2011.06.185
2008
Journal Article
Novel splice variants of rat Cav2.1 that lack much of the synaptic protein interaction site are expressed in neuroendocrine cells
Rajapaksha, W. R. A. Kosala J. S., Wang, Daoyi, Davies, Jonathan N., Chen, Lina, Zamponi, Gerald W. and Fisher, Thomas E. (2008). Novel splice variants of rat Cav2.1 that lack much of the synaptic protein interaction site are expressed in neuroendocrine cells. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 283 (23), 15997-16003. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M710544200
2008
Journal Article
Old proteins, developing roles: The regulation of calcium channels by synaptic proteins
Davies, Jonathan N. and Zamponi, Gerald W. (2008). Old proteins, developing roles: The regulation of calcium channels by synaptic proteins. Channels, 2 (2), 130-138. doi: 10.4161/chan.2.2.6214
2007
Journal Article
GABA-deficient mice produce regional alterations in motoneuron survival during neural development
Noakes, P. G., Smallcombe, K., Arata, A., Obata, A., Davies, J. and Bellingham, M. C. (2007). GABA-deficient mice produce regional alterations in motoneuron survival during neural development. The Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, 27 (33).
Funding
Current funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Jonathan Davies is:
- Available for supervision
Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Chronic Pain:Integrating Lived Experience, Patient-Centred Outcomes & Neurobiological Correlates
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Melissa Day
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Doctor Philosophy
Lived Experience and Empathy in Chronic Pain Care: Exploring Provider-Level Influences on Patient Outcomes
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Melissa Day
Media
Enquiries
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