Central Neuropathic Pain

Neuropathic pain is a chronic debilitating condition caused by a lesion or a disease of the somatosensory system. It affects 7-10% of the general population and up to 50% of those with spinal cord injury.

People with spinal cord injury often report pain at or below the level of injury despite having limited or even no real sensation. Despite the availability of various pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments, Neuropathic Pain remains refractory for many patients, seriously affecting their quality of life and necessitating the exploration of novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

Abstract

Cross-sectional studies have shown that pain affects brain activity in Central Neuropathic Pain. However, more studies are needed to establish if mismatch negativity (MMN) is a biomarker for pain intensity. This work aims to determine whether the changes in MMN, i.e., amplitude and latency, is predictive of change in central neuropathic pain intensity due to medication.

In this longitudinal study, ten people with spinal cord injury-related central neuropathic pain recorded their response to MMN experiment using home-based self-guided EEG set-up for ten days both before and after taking medications over a period of several weeks. We found that the change in MMN was not predictive of change in central neuropathic pain intensity due to medications.

Conclusions: Duration-deviant or Frequency-deviant Mismatch Negativity was not able to detect self reported central neuropathic pain intensity. So we conclude that MMN may not be a surrogate or pharmacodynamic marker of Central Neuropathic Pain in people with Spinal Cord Injury.

My Poster

Here is my poster summarizing this work.

MMN_CNP_poster_v2.pdf

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