Neuroimaging as a tool for pain diagnosis and analgesic development.
Neuroimaging makes it possible to study pain processing beyond the peripheral nervous system, at the supraspinal level, in a safe, noninvasive way, without interfering with neurophysiological processes. In recent years, studies using brain imaging methods have contributed to our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the development and maintenance of chronic pain. Moreover, neuroimaging shows promising results for analgesic drug development and in characterizing different types of pain, bringing us closer to development of mechanism-based diagnoses and treatments for the chronic pain patient.
Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Brain, Department of Clinical Neurology, and Nuffield Department of Anaesthetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, OX3 9DU, United Kingdom. karolina@fmrib.ox.ac.uk
Karolina
K
Wartolowska
Irene
I
Tracey
D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology
D000700:Analgesics