Chronic pain and Brain stimulation

[gmccormack]

was talking to a friend in the medical field today and we got to discussing the future of chronic pain treatments.

When do you think that chronic pain will cease to exist? 25, 50, 100 years?

Personally, I believe it is closer than you may think, don't get this confused with cures. Neurology has been experimenting with non invasive motor cortex brain stim for years and the results are getting better although the relief is very transient in most cases.

Pain mngmt is a mega business, some statistics of over $40 Billion each year. I think it's sort of the last frontier to conquer. There is big money in pain which is good for research.

With the advent of the fMRI we can now see what region of the brain pain exists, at least we have a way to prove pain exists, if I'm not mistaken Nickel said in one of his studies that a majority of chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome patients show a jump in the ingula region.

Anyways, if science can effectively target a specific part of the brain and "shake up the wires" with a brain stim or some other measure, chronic pain will cease to exist.

Below is just 1 article on brain stim and fibromyalgia for example, if you search it on google you'll find hundreds. The newer ones are much more explanatory. Maybe this is just wishful fantasy land thinking but I think that in our lifetimes considering we are 20 -50 that there will be a day where it will be rare to be in pain more than 3 months.

Effects of unilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex on chronic widespread pain in fibromyalgia

Any thoughts?

[mattG]

Certainly an interesting topic. My response is probably overly philosophical, but if you remove pain from the human experience you will correspondingly reduce pleasure. They are two sides of the same coin. It may not occur in a straightforward manner, but pain is clearly here for a purpose. If pain or the threat of pain does not exist people will no longer need exercise, good nutrition, etc. This would certainly have some pretty devastating consequences in the natural world. But in the brave new world maybe health itself is no longer what it is today

[gmccormack]

I think the spontaneous pain is here to stay, you get punched in the face it will still hurt. My hope is that chronic pain, chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome (a central nervous system condition) is a great example will be eliminated by altering the mechanisms of pain which are very complex but include the dorsal horn of the spine and NMDA receptors in other words science I know will eventually understand the pathways of all pain but it is way down the road but my fathers physician for example says that the things we're doing today were unfathomable 40 years ago.

To take your cue of being on the philosophical side, I find comfort in advance of science especially when the pain is bad. It gives me tremendous hope no matter how carried away I become. I find even more comfort in a physician that is willing to entertain "what if's" of science.

You are right that it will be a different world, if a shoulder ache goes on for 3 months maybe you go to pain clinic who can alter some proteins or move nerves off bone or muscle and your good to go, maybe the body needs the shoulder to ache because it is injured and needs time to heal.

I was born to too early I think....