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Comparative Study
. 2013 Oct;124(10):2016-24.
doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2013.04.009. Epub 2013 May 22.

Effects of non-pharmacological pain treatments on brain states

Mark P Jensen  1 , Leslie H Sherlin, Robert L Askew, Felipe Fregni, Gregory Witkop, Ann Gianas, Jon D Howe, Shahin Hakimian
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Effects of non-pharmacological pain treatments on brain states

Mark P Jensen et al. Clin Neurophysiol. 2013 Oct.

Abstract

Objective: To (1) evaluate the effects of a single session of four non-pharmacological pain interventions, relative to a sham tDCS procedure, on pain and electroencephalogram- (EEG-) assessed brain oscillations, and (2) determine the extent to which procedure-related changes in pain intensity are associated with changes in brain oscillations.

Methods: 30 individuals with spinal cord injury and chronic pain were given an EEG and administered measures of pain before and after five procedures (hypnosis, meditation, transcranial direct current stimulation [tDCS], neurofeedback, and a control sham tDCS procedure).

Results: Each procedure was associated with a different pattern of changes in brain activity, and all active procedures were significantly different from the control procedure in at least three bandwidths. Very weak and mostly non-significant associations were found between changes in EEG-assessed brain activity and pain.

Conclusions: Different non-pharmacological pain treatments have distinctive effects on brain oscillation patterns. However, changes in EEG-assessed brain oscillations are not significantly associated with changes in pain, and therefore such changes do not appear useful for explaining the benefits of these treatments.

Significance: The results provide new findings regarding the unique effects of four non-pharmacological treatments on pain and brain activity.

Keywords: Brain states; Chronic pain; Electroencephalography; Non-pharmacological treatments; Spinal cord injury.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Statement

Leslie Sherlin is a principle owner of Nova Tech EEG, Inc., which provides QEEG analysis services and distributes QEEG equipment and analysis software tools. He is also the chief science officer for Neurotopia, Inc. where he develops hardware and software platforms for cognitive and neurofeedback training in athlete populations. Finally he is a provider of QEEG analysis and neurofeedback services and is a principle owner at Arizona Brain Performance Center. The other authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pre- to post-session changes in absolute bandwidth at different electrode sites.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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