Secrets of chronic lower back pain revealed

Brain activity has been recorded in patients with chronic lower back pain, a condition affecting many people wanting to find a care home.

Arterial spin labelling was employed by scientists at Brigham and Women's Hospital to view the brains of chronic lower back pain patients in three sessions.

The first session was for characterisation and training, during the second researchers temporarily exacerbated the back and in the third heat was applied to the skin to create an equal level of pain to the second session.

Brain activity was heightened when participants experienced a worsening of their chronic pain, but not during the heat sessions.

Lead author Ajay Wasan explained: "We are getting closer to describing, on an objective level, how the body and brain are reacting when a patient reports having more pain. We are hopeful that this could lead to an understanding of an individual patient's neurocircuitry and that knowledge could lead to therapies that would be tailored to the individual."

This follows research from the University of Manchester and published in journal Soft Matter which revealed an injectable implant could be used to treat lower back pain.

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