Back pains? Brain scans predict how long they’ll last

By Janet Fang | July 3, 2012, 7:08 PM PDT

A new technique can predict which patients with sore backs will end up enduring it as chronic back pain.

According to a new study, there’s a difference in brain scans between two groups of patients – those whose pain subsides and those whose pain lasts for years. And this difference appears early in the course of the pain.

By analyzing the scans, researchers were able to predict whether the patients would develop chronic pain with an 85% level of accuracy – leading to ways of identifying patients who are the most at risk and to new treatments or preventions.

“Chronic pain is one of the most expensive health care conditions in the US, yet there still is not a scientifically validated therapy for this condition,” says study researcher Vania Apkarian of Northwestern University./.../