Brain biomarkers for pain sensitivity

Brain biomarkers for pain sensitivity
JAMA Neurology; Prasad Shirvalkar, MD, PhD; Christopher J. Rozell, PhD; 1/25
Identifying objective biomarkers that track individual pain severity has been dubbed “the holy grail” of pain neuroscience. Chronic pain affects up to one-fifth of US adults, and its complexity is attributed to a confluence of physical, emotional, and cognitive factors that contribute to suffering and disability. The epidemic of chronic pain initially contributed to the rise of the opioid epidemic and continues to plague nearly all fields of clinical medicine. Identifying and validating biomarkers to predict individual risk for chronic pain facilitate a precision medicine approach to pain medicine. Despite the unknown provenance of the proposed biomarkers, the results of the present study have the potential to aid in the practical development of personalized pain management strategies.