Pain levels measured in brain using MRI

[John T Hooker]

OXFORD, England, June 7 (UPI) -- British scientists say they have for the first time developed a way to use brain scans to objectively measure the levels of pain felt by patients.
Using magnetic resonance imaging, researchers have found distinct differences between the brains of people who are experiencing pain and those who are not. That means doctors may have a way to measure suffering based on something other than asking patients how they are feeling, The Sunday Times of London reported.
"Pain seems to increase the blood flow to certain parts of the brain, roughly in proportion to the amount of pain felt, and we can measure that activation in a brain scan," Irene Tracey, professor of anaesthetic science at Oxford University, told the newspaper.
She and her colleagues reportedly have found the brain employs a "pain matrix" wherein physical suffering typically activates more than a dozen parts of the brain -- a distinct contrast with other senses such as vision or hearing that only stimulate just one part of the brain.
The Sunday Times said the findings indicate pain could one day be measured objectively, a development that would have big legal and social implications.


Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/06/07/Pain-levels-measured-in-brain-using-MRI/UPI-55801244395672/#ixzz1bwOEqGD2

[No Looking Back]

spells trouble for those fakers out there...I know I've been one before

[ausativa]

spells trouble for those fakers out there...I know I've been one before

THIS^^^^^

[upstate_007]

Fuck that. Pain is still subjective. I have an enormous pain threshold. From years of pain unfortunately.

What makes another person scream with pain might only make me ask for a bandaid. I do not see how that study can be accurate.

[reddragon3668]

they may be able to measure the response of pain on the brain, but that does nothing to measure a person's psychological response to said pain. We all process it differently. I'm like you, upstate. My doctor recently gave me a shot in my hip for Bursitis and he had an intern with him. He told the intern to help hold me still because I would be in allot of pain. I never felt the needle, never flinched once. He later said that I had a very high pain threshold, which surprised me. I've often wondered if chronic pain lowers that threshold. Apparently not.

[AndiPandi]

Fuck that. Pain is still subjective. I have an enormous pain threshold. From years of pain unfortunately.

What makes another person scream with pain might only make me ask for a bandaid. I do not see how that study can be accurate.

I was just talking to my brother about this, who happens to be a pharmacist. I explained to him how after 2+ yrs of being in excruciating pain my pain tolerance has been adjusted. But that doesn't mean that I don't suffer pain. It just means if I broke a limb I wouldn't be crying like some might.

I had a high pain tolerance to begin with and still do. So, these scientists and their findings can eat a big fat dick for all I care.

[upstate_007]

If anything, I would think that chronic pain raises it.

Being in pretty bad pain 24/7, you learn to live with it and deal with it. Otherwise you would lose it. So for someone in pain all the time, their perception of pain would be changed. Since pain is a neurological response, there are many variables. Pain is not the injury, pain is your brain warning you that something is wrong.

Look at phantom pain in amputated limbs.
Or the monks sitting still while burning alive.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/38/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c_self-immolation.jpg

[dharma bum]

If anything, I would think that chronic pain raises it.

Being in pretty bad pain 24/7, you learn to live with it and deal with it. Otherwise you would lose it. So for someone in pain all the time, their perception of pain would be changed. Since pain is a neurological response, there are many variables. Pain is not the injury, pain is your brain warning you that something is wrong.

Look at phantom pain in amputated limbs.
Or the monks sitting still while burning alive.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/38/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c_self-immolation.jpg

That Buddhist must have became enlightened with that Gas Can....well, he's in Nirvana now.

[ausativa]

i was waiting for someone to throw the huffing gas reference. awesome picture though upstate, definenintly epic.

[doctor diesel]

This will open up a massive can of worms and let the fuckers wriggle absolutely everywhere. We'll end up with people suffering extreme pain being told they can't have anything for it - or they can have 15mg of codeine - because their head map isn't fully lit up on the monitor.
This research will come to fruition, some egghead will declare absolutes of pain measurement, then 25 years down the line, after hundreds of thousands of suicides, further research will find the concept was flawed.
Nice try but they'd better not start telling US how much pain we're in. The fuckers.
Kick those eggheads in the balls I say.


Doc

[OpiatedChronically]

This will open up a massive can of worms and let the fuckers wriggle absolutely everywhere. We'll end up with people suffering extreme pain being told they can't have anything for it - or they can have 15mg of codeine - because their head map isn't fully lit up on the monitor.
This research will come to fruition, some egghead will declare absolutes of pain measurement, then 25 years down the line, after hundreds of thousands of suicides, further research will find the concept was flawed.
Nice try but they'd better not start telling US how much pain we're in. The fuckers.
Kick those eggheads in the balls I say.


Doc

Couldn't have said it better myself.

You sir, have been repped. The day they say the machine determines how much pain I'm really in, especially after my multiple MRI's and X-Rays and surgery prove that I'm in a fuckload of pain, is the day I .....do something....insane.

[Nagelfar]

That Buddhist must have became enlightened with that Gas Can....well, he's in Nirvana now.

I've been trying to tell you guys the same thing....

[Spork]

This is kind of like how the legal limit for drunk driving is a set number of blood alcohol.

Well what if you are a chronic alcoholic and have a high tolerance to alcohol? .08 BAC for you might mean just not having the shakes, but being sober in other respects.

So people with a low tolerance to pain would get fucked over by this system, too.

[ryan5892]

i was waiting for someone to throw the huffing gas reference. awesome picture though upstate, definenintly epic.

Just watch the video, seriously made me cry.

The pic comes from a video, I believe this guy was protesting the vietnam war, very very sad.

[Spork]

haha, no it was not the vietnam war. Hippies aren't into self immolation. He was protesting the roman catholic persecution of Buddhists.