In a new development, researchers at Lund University have developed a completely new stimulation technique. The method uses ultra-thin microelectrodes to fight severe pain. Importantly, the technique provides an effective and personalized pain relief without common side effects associated with pain relief drugs.
The findings of the study is published in Science Advances.
In fact, side-effects of treatment for long-term pain often considerably tarnishes the quality of affected patients. Whilst the persistent pain mandates analgesic treatment to function in everyday life. Traditional treatment for pain relief certainly reduces pain but at the same time has an impact on the senses and mental function. There also lies considerable risk to develop a drug addiction.
In fact, pain also accounts for considerable cost for the society in the form of sick leave, lost production, and healthcare costs. According to a recently released American report, about 8% American population suffer from chronic pain of high impact.
A team of researchers at Lund developed a method to fight pain via personalized stimulation using tissue-friendly, ultra-thin microelectrodes.
Structurally, the electrodes are very soft and extremely easy on the brain. The electrodes are particularly meant to activate the pain control zones of the brain without activation of the nerve cell circuits simultaneously that produce side effects.
Elaborately, the method involves implantation of a cluster of extremely thin electrodes and then select a sub-group of electrodes to provide pure pain relief with zero side effects. With this procedure, it enables an extremely accurate and personalized stimulation treatment to have shown to work for each individual.
The activation of the pain control centers of the brain blocks the pain and these in turn block only the signal transfer in the pathway to pain to the cerebral cortex.