An official website of the United States governmentPete Murray, Ph.D.
Program Director, Clinical Research in Complementary and Integrative Health Branch
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
6707 Democracy Boulevard II, Suite 401 Bethesda, MD 20892 (Courier Service - 20817)
Pete Murray, Ph.D., is a program director in the Division of Extramural Research of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). His research portfolio includes studies of complementary and integrative approaches to pain management. Against the backdrop of the opioid epidemic, Dr. Murray is particularly interested in identifying complementary and integrative, nonpharmacologic interventions that are effective in treating pain and can be used in lieu of—or decrease the use of—opioids.
Dr. Murray also supports the Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative®, overseeing studies aimed at developing nonopioid interventions to treat pain, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)–Department of Defense (DOD)–Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Pain Management Collaboratory with the goal of conducting large-scale pragmatic clinical research in military and veteran health care delivery organizations focusing on nonpharmacological approaches to pain management and other comorbid conditions.
Prior to joining NCCIH, Dr. Murray developed a comprehensive pain management research program investment strategy for the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) and the Defense Health Agency (DHA). While there, he identified and prioritized military pain management capability gaps; aligned funding to execute pain management initiatives; and served as a subject matter expert for the review of pain management grants submitted to the Clinical and Rehabilitative Medicine Research Program and other USAMRDC and DHA programs. Among other duties, Dr. Murray served as DOD representative to interagency collaborations and oversight bodies including the Defense and Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management, the Armed Services Biomedical Research Evaluation and Management Communities of Interest, and the NIH-DOD-VA Pain Management Collaboratory.
Dr. Murray completed his undergraduate degree in biology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and his doctorate in neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. During his postdoctoral training, he completed studies characterizing neural network computation involved in the control of movement, and maladaptive plasticity changes that occur in the brain following spinal cord injury that underlie central pain syndrome.