Columbus-based The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center researchers studied spinal cord stimulation's impact on chronic pain patients' emotions, according to National Pain Report. They studied 10 patients with chronic leg pain, implanted with a spinal cord simulator.
Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface published the study.
Here are four observations:
1. The study found SCS may decrease patients' emotional response to pain.
2. SCS can decrease the emotional connectivity and processing in particular brain areas of chronic pain patients.
3. A chronic pain patient possesses an abnormal default mode network, which is the brain's resting state network affecting cognitive and emotional response to pain.
4. The researchers concluded their study will help establish new therapies for chronic pain patients based on pain's pathophysiology.