Effects of non-pharmacological pain treatments on brain states.
Author: Jensen MP, Sherlin LH, Askew RL, Fregni F, Witkop G, Gianas A, Howe JD, Hakimian S.
Affiliation:
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. Electronic address: mjensen@uw.edu.
Conference/Journal: Clin Neurophysiol
Date published: 2013 May 22
Other:
Pages: S1388-2457(13)00280-0 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2013.04.009 , Word Count: 204
OBJECTIVE:
To (1) evaluate the effects of a single session of four non-pharmacological pain interventions, relative to a sham tDCS procedure, on pain and electroencephalogram- (EEG-) assessed brain oscillations, and (2) determine the extent to which procedure-related changes in pain intensity are associated with changes in brain oscillations.
METHODS:
30 individuals with spinal cord injury and chronic pain were given an EEG and administered measures of pain before and after five procedures (hypnosis, meditation, transcranial direct current stimulation [tDCS], neurofeedback, and a control sham tDCS procedure).
RESULTS:
Each procedure was associated with a different pattern of changes in brain activity, and all active procedures were significantly different from the control procedure in at least three bandwidths. Very weak and mostly non-significant associations were found between changes in EEG-assessed brain activity and pain.
CONCLUSIONS:
Different non-pharmacological pain treatments have distinctive effects on brain oscillation patterns. However, changes in EEG-assessed brain oscillations are not significantly associated with changes in pain, and therefore such changes do not appear useful for explaining the benefits of these treatments.
SIGNIFICANCE:
The results provide new findings regarding the unique effects of four non-pharmacological treatments on pain and brain activity.
Copyright © 2013 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
PMID: 23706958
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