Easing the pain
Issued: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:21:00 BST
Scientists at the University of Glasgow are researching whether neurofeedback training can help people who suffer from intense chronic pain.
Dr Aleksandra Vuckovic, a lecturer in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Glasgow, is running a study through the Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Unit at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital to see how neurofeedback might be used to reduce neuropathic pain such as that experienced by multiple sclerosis patients or stroke victims.
Neurofeedback is a type of biofeedback in which a person becomes aware of the physiological state of their body: such as breathing, heartbeat and temperature; and can manipulate and control this at will. The same technique can be applied to brainwaves: all that is required is a visual representation of what is happening in the brain, which is supplied by an EEG (electroencephalogram) machine.
The researchers aimed to identify which brain wave features are most correlated with the neuropathic pain in spinal cord injury patients, train patients to use the neurofeedback to modify their brainwaves, test whether patients could learn to modify brain waves even without the feedback, and test whether voluntary modulation of brain waves reduced the experience of pain.
Dr Vuckovic explains: 'People who have spinal or nerve damage often experience pain, for example in their limbs, where there is no actual physical stimulation – it's being created by the brain. This usually happens because the brain is not receiving the normal signals from the affected body part, so the brain over-compensates for this lack of signal and this results in pain. As you can imagine the brain of someone in a lot of pain is in a high state of arousal. What we want to do is get them to reduce this level of arousal. We're essentially trying to train people's brains.'
Dr Vuckovic points out that 'the technique has already been shown to work in a variety of conditions, such as migraine, epileptic seizures and ADHD. The same therapy can be used for the other groups of patients with neuropathic pain, such as stroke patients and amputees'.
The participants in the study have attended the unit twice or three times a week for up to 40 sessions. Most of the participants in this study had some sensation in the affected part of the body and three out of four reduced their pain levels by 30% or more and this was sustained for several days after each session.
The software and technique involved in the study was developed by Dr Vuckovic and PhD student Muhammad Abul Hasan from Karachi, Pakistan, using equipment from Guger Technologies of Austria which is usually used for brain-computer interfaces for controlling machines. The study was funded by a Medical Research Council 'hopping grant', which aims to encourage researchers to work in fields outside of their own area of specialism.