How close are we to quantifying pain?

July 16, 2014

 

Assessments of pain have traditionally relied on subjective measures, on asking patients about their perception of pain ("how bad does it hurt?"). In a recent post on Boston Children's Hospital's science and clinical innovation blog, Tom Ulrich checks in with the Martinos Center's Lino Becerra and colleagues about the possibility of obtaining objective, quantitative measures of pain. Such measures would of course prove a powerful tool in pain management and in a host of other applications.