chronic pain

Study helps explain why chronic pain is often discounted

keila.depape@mcgill.ca — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 19:41:33 +0000

A new study by �鶹��ý��վ researchers shows that chronic pain, often invisible to medical tests, can be better assessed when doctors take a holistic approach.

By combining biological data with information about patients’ mental health, sleep and stress, the researchers say they were able to create a fuller picture of chronic pain. They said their findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, stand to improve how the condition is diagnosed and treated.

Breakthrough discovery uses gut bacteria and AI to diagnose a chronic pain syndrome

keila.depape@mcgill.ca — Mon, 05 May 2025 18:06:54 +0000

�鶹��ý��վ researchers, in collaboration with colleagues in Israel and Ireland, have developed AI technology that can detect patterns in gut bacteria to identify complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) with remarkable accuracy, potentially transforming how CRPS is diagnosed and treated.

When using music to alleviate pain, tempo matters

katherine.gombay@mcgill.ca — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 19:07:53 +0000

Music has the best chance of providing pain relief when it is played at our natural rhythm, a �鶹��ý��վ research team has discovered.

This suggests it may be possible to reduce a patient’s level of pain by using technology to take a piece of music someone likes and adjust the tempo to match their internal rhythm, the researchers said.

The discovery was the subject of a paper published this week in Pain, the top journal in the field of pain medicine and research.

Childhood trauma increases risk of chronic pain in adulthood

keila.depape@mcgill.ca — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 21:08:38 +0000

Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, or neglect, either alone or combined with other types of childhood trauma, increases the risk of chronic pain and related disability in adulthood, according to new research. The findings from an international team of experts, including several �鶹��ý��վ researchers, underscore the urgency of addressing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) – potentially traumatic events that occur before 18 years of age – and taking steps to mitigate their long-term impact on people’s health.

A new model to identify and predict chronic pain

frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 16:18:00 +0000

Chronic pain is a complex condition that affects millions of individuals worldwide and understanding its causes and predicting its trajectory remains difficult. However, findings from a recent �鶹��ý��վ-led study published in Nature Medicine could improve the understanding and management of chronic pain. The researchers developed a model that can predict one’s likelihood of developing chronic pain as well as the severity and spread of that pain.

Etienne Vachon-Presseau

lawrence.chiang@mail.mcgill.ca — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 04:37:43 +0000

No pain, no gain? How the brain chooses between pain and profit

katherine.gombay@mcgill.ca — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 16:19:57 +0000

Imagine having to choose over and over between what you enjoy doing and the pain that it might cause you, whether physical or emotional. If you live with conditions such as depression, anxiety, or chronic pain, you are probably familiar with making these difficult choices on a daily or weekly basis. But surprisingly little is known about which areas of the brain are involved in decisions of this kind.

Sex bias in pain research

justin.dupuis@mcgill.ca — Thu, 21 May 2020 14:04:36 +0000

It is increasingly clear that male and female humans and rodents process pain in different ways. And that there are important differences in the underlying mechanisms involved at genetic, molecular, cellular, and physiological levels. Despite this fact, according to a review paper from �鶹��ý��վ published today in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, most pain research remains overwhelmingly based on the study of male rodents, continuing to test hypotheses derived from earlier experiments on males.

Pain-induced changes in the brain’s opioid system may explain the limited effectiveness of opioid therapy in chronic pain

laurie.devine@mcgill.ca — Sun, 27 May 2018 16:19:57 +0000

Pain-induced changes in the brain’s opioid receptor system may explain the limited effectiveness of opioid therapy in chronic pain and may play a role in the depression that often accompanies it, according to a study from the NIH’s Intramural Research Program and �鶹��ý��վ. Although the study, published in the journal Pain, was conducted in rats, and the results of animal studies may not be directly applicable to people, the findings provide new insights into how the brain may respond to pain and opioids.

Newly discovered pathway for pain processing could lead to new treatments

priya.pajel@mail.mcgill.ca — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 14:20:15 +0000

The discovery of a new biological pathway involved in pain processing offers hope of using existing cancer drugs to replace the use of opioids in chronic pain treatment, according to scientists at �鶹��ý��վ.

Because many therapeutic options, such as opioids, for patients with chronic pain carry the risk of addiction and undesirable side effects, this breakthrough offers promising lines of research into chronic pain treatment, says Luda Diatchenko, professor at �鶹��ý��վ’s Faculty of Dentistry and co-lead author of the new study