Scientists find visual evidence of pain in the brain

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Many people live with chronic pain, but there hasn’t been a way to show their pain or the intensity of it. Now, for the first time, scientists have found visual evidence in the brains of pain patients.

For 11 years, Glenn Crawford has lived with severe lower back pain.

“I was at a level 10 when I was so bad that if there had been gun in reach, I would have killed myself just to get rid of the pain,” said Crawford.

Ten is the highest number on the pain scale. It’s one way patients tell doctors how bad their pain is. But there has been no objective way for doctors to see that pain or measure it.

“When patients report pain, it’s a very subjective issue,” said Dr. Jennifer Elliott, a pain specialist at Saint Luke’s Hospital.

Dr. Elliott knows that could change. Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital have found evidence of inflammation in the brains of chronic back pain patients. Pet scans of pain patients’ brains showed higher levels of a protein in red and orange while the higher levels weren’t present in the pet scans of people who were pain-free.

Researchers say their finding could lead to better ways of diagnosing and treating pain. Drugs could be developed to target the brain inflammation.

“Certainly, that would be a new breakthrough instead of treating pain with peripheral things, trying to target the pain where it may be getting generated in the brain,” said Dr. Elliott.

Crawford has benefited from an implanted pain pump, but his back pain is still at a five or six on the scale.

“What would be great is if they could come up with one medication that could cause that inflammation to go down and live a normal life again,” said Crawford.

That is the wish of many sufferers, and the hope from the new research.

The study is published online in the journal, Brain. Researchers say more study is needed, but the scans were remarkably consistent in the small group of twenty people. Half had pain, and half did not.