Have you ever been asked to rate your level of pain on a scale from 1 to 10? As a person’s pain level is completely subjective, it can be confusing and difficult to gauge where you fit on that scale. If the worst injury you’ve had is a minor, how do you know what a “10” feels like?
Researchers at Stanford University are hoping their findings will allow patients and doctors to have a more objective way of evaluating pain, enabling better and more efficient treatment.
Current Situation
Right now, there is no method in place to objectively measure pain intensity. Physicians have to rely on patients verbalizing their pain level and pain location, which can be especially difficult if the patient is unable or unwilling to communicate effectively.
However, past studies have proven a connection between pain and a protein called a sodium channel. Sodium channels help nerve cells transmit pain and other sensations to the brain, and are overproduced at the site of an injury.
Seeing Pain
In a study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, scientists say they’ve developed a new technique using sodium channels that could help doctors pinpoint the location of pain, as well as find better ways to relieve pain and track the healing process.
Researchers attached a signal to saxitoxin, a small molecule produced by certain types of microscopic marine life, and administered it to injured rats. They were then able to track the molecule’s process through the body using PET imaging.
Results showed that the saxitoxin molecules pooled at the sites where rats had nerve damage, thereby marking where the sodium channels were located.
Researchers are hoping this technology can be used in the future to monitor changes of the sodium channels that occur as a part of wound healing and/or drug treatment.
How do you feel about current processes for monitoring and tracking pain? Do you think the subjectivity surrounding pain assessments results in ineffective treatment plans or misdiagnoses? We will be continuing this conversation inside our online physician community, if you’re an M.D. or D.O., please join us.
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