A games -based intervention developed by the University of New South Wales has potentially demonstrated as a drug -free treatment for chronic pain.
How it works
The Neurofeedback intervention is called Painwaive and includes a kit with an EEG headset and a tablet in advance loaded with a game application.
The game app trains users to regulate abnormal brain activity associated with chronic nerve pain. It responds in real time to shifts in brain golf patterns, which are followed via the EEG headset. The user data is uploaded and sent to the research team for remote monitoring. In addition, mental strategies are also provided to help users optimize their brain activity.
According to UNSW, the research team developed their own EEG headset via 3D printing, because existing commercial systems were expensive or did not meet the quality needed for the project.
A UNSW and Neuroscience Research Australia (Neura) research team recently conducted the first study of the intervention with four participants.
Findings
Based on findings Published in The Journal of Pain van Elsevier, the intervention of neurofeedback caused an “average effect on the severity of pain and interference in participants.”
However, it was also noted that “variability in outcomes emphasizes the need for future research to better understand individual reactions and to optimize the intervention effect.” On an individual level, three out of four participants had a significant reduction in pain after the intervention.
“Restrictions in the size, design and duration of the research limit our ability to generalize the findings or to exclude placebo effects. But the results we have seen are exciting and give us confidence to go to the next phase and our greater test,” Lead-Lead Dr. emphasized. Negin Hegam-Shararhati from Unsw’s Neurorecovery Researchshub.
Researchers hope that the program can be offered one day as a solution for pain management for home for people with limited or no access to traditional treatments. For now, the research team is preparing a wider study, with the aim of recruiting 224 patients who have to do with nerve pain due to an spinal cord glitch.
The larger trend
The Painwaive project builds on the groundbreaking research into brain changes associated with nerve pain by Unsw Professor Sylvia Gustin.
“The brain waves of people with neuropathic pain show a clear pattern: slower theta waves, fewer alpha waves and more fast, high betabolven. We believe that these changes interfere with how the thalamus talks with other parts of the brain, especially the sensory motor cortex,” she said.
Last month, MobiHealth News Reported about a study that was co -led by Prof Gustin who demonstrates the potential of a digital therapeutic to redesign the processing of emotions by the brain in connection with chronic pain.
That study and the Painwaive project are two of more than a dozen collaborations by UNSW and Neura focused on the research by Prof Gustin.
Another project uses Virtual Reality and Real-World Touch Stimulation to help patients with full spinal cords feel again to feel.
Unsw and Neura are now preparing for tests with two neuromodulation technologies: one will investigate the potential to reduce chronic spinal pain, and the other will investigate it when treating chronic neuropathic pain in people with spinal cord.
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