Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Prime Minister of Yemen’s Houthi Government Killed in Israeli Strike

3 days ago

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Signs Law Redrawing Congressional Maps

4 days ago

US Air Force will Offer Military Funeral Honors to Slain Capitol Rioter

4 days ago

US Republican Senator Joni Ernst Will Not Run for Re-Election, CBS News Reports

4 days ago

Wall Street Falls as Dell, Nvidia Drive Tech Losses

4 days ago

US Denies Visas to Palestinian Officials Ahead of UN General Assembly

4 days ago

Minneapolis Children Revealed Courage, Absorbed Fear During Church Shooting

5 days ago

Ford Recalls Nearly 500,000 Vehicles Over Brake Fluid Leak

5 days ago

Fresno-Bound Passenger Says Delta Attendant Slapped Him, Seeks $20M

5 days ago
No Stethoscope for Pain: Scientists Seek Real Way to Measure
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 7 years ago on
January 12, 2019

Share

WASHINGTON — Is the pain stabbing or burning? On a scale from 1 to 10, is it a 6 or an 8?
Over and over, 17-year-old Sarah Taylor struggled to make doctors understand her sometimes debilitating levels of pain, first from joint-damaging childhood arthritis and then from fibromyalgia.

“It’s really hard when people can’t see how much pain you’re in, because they have to take your word on it and sometimes, they don’t quite believe you.” — 17-year-old Sarah Taylor
“It’s really hard when people can’t see how much pain you’re in, because they have to take your word on it and sometimes, they don’t quite believe you,” she said.
Now scientists are peeking into Sarah’s eyes to track how her pupils react when she’s hurting and when she’s not — part of a quest to develop the first objective way to measure pain.
“If we can’t measure pain, we can’t fix it,” said Dr. Julia Finkel, a pediatric anesthesiologist at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, who invented the experimental eye-tracking device.
At just about every doctor’s visit you’ll get your temperature, heart rate and blood pressure measured. But there’s no stethoscope for pain. Patients must convey how bad it is using that 10-point scale or emoji-style charts that show faces turning from smiles to frowns.
That’s problematic for lots of reasons. Doctors and nurses have to guess at babies’ pain by their cries and squirms, for example. The aching that one person rates a 7 might be a 4 to someone who’s more used to serious pain or genetically more tolerant. Patient-to-patient variability makes it hard to test if potential new painkillers really work.

Scientists Have Begun Studies of Brain Scans and Pupil Reactions

Nor do self-ratings determine what kind of pain someone has — one reason for trial-and-error treatment. Are opioids necessary? Or is the pain, like Sarah’s, better suited to nerve-targeting medicines?

“It’s very frustrating to be in pain and you have to wait like six weeks, two months, to see if the drug’s working.” — 17-year-old Sarah Taylor
“It’s very frustrating to be in pain and you have to wait like six weeks, two months, to see if the drug’s working,” said Sarah, who uses a combination of medications, acupuncture and lots of exercise to counter her pain.
The National Institutes of Health is pushing for development of what its director, Dr. Francis Collins, has called a “pain-o-meter.” Spurred by the opioid crisis , the goal isn’t just to signal how much pain someone’s in. It’s also to determine what kind it is and what drug might be the most effective.
“We’re not creating a lie detector for pain,” stressed David Thomas of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, who oversees the research. “We do not want to lose the patient voice.”
Around the country, NIH-funded scientists have begun studies of brain scans, pupil reactions and other possible markers of pain in hopes of finally “seeing” the ouch so they can better treat it. It’s early-stage research, and it’s not clear how soon any of the attempts might pan out.
“There won’t be a single signature of pain,” Thomas predicted. “My vision is that someday we’ll pull these different metrics together for something of a fingerprint of pain.”
Acupuncture needles are applied on Sarah Taylor's back during an acupuncture treatment at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington
Acupuncture needles are applied on Sarah Taylor’s back during an acupuncture treatment at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, Monday, Dec. 10, 2018. Over and over, the 17-year-old struggled to make doctors understand her sometimes debilitating levels of pain, first from joint-damaging childhood arthritis and then from fibromyalgia. “It’s very frustrating to be in pain and you have to wait like six weeks, two months, to see if the drug’s working,” said Sarah, who uses a combination of medications, acupuncture and lots of exercise to counter her pain. Children’s National Medical Center is testing an experimental device that aims to measure pain according to how pupils react to certain stimuli. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

25 Million People in the U.S. Experience Daily Pain

NIH estimates 25 million people in the U.S. experience daily pain. Most days Sarah Taylor is one of them. Now living in Potomac, Maryland, she was a toddler in her native Australia when the swollen, aching joints of juvenile arthritis appeared. She’s had migraines and spinal inflammation. Then two years ago, the body-wide pain of fibromyalgia struck; a flare-up last winter hospitalized her for two weeks.
One recent morning, Sarah climbed onto an acupuncture table at Children’s National, rated that day’s pain a not-too-bad 3, and opened her eyes wide for the experimental pain test.
“There’ll be a flash of light for 10 seconds. All you have to do is try not to blink,” researcher Kevin Jackson told Sarah as he lined up the pupil-tracking device, mounted on a smartphone.
The eyes offer a window to pain centers in the brain, said Finkel, who directs pain research at Children’s Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation.
How? Some pain-sensing nerves transmit “ouch” signals to the brain along pathways that also alter muscles of the pupils as they react to different stimuli. Finkel’s device tracks pupillary reactions to light or to non-painful stimulation of certain nerve fibers, aiming to link different patterns to different intensities and types of pain.
Consider the shooting hip and leg pain of sciatica: “Everyone knows someone who’s been started on oxycodone for their sciatic nerve pain. And they’ll tell you that they feel it — it still hurts — and they just don’t care,” Finkel said.

MRI Scans Revealed Patterns of Inflammation in the Brain

What’s going on? An opioid like oxycodone brings some relief by dulling the perception of pain but not its transmission — while a different kind of drug might block the pain by targeting the culprit nerve fiber, she said.

“Your brain changes with pain. A zero-to-10 scale or a happy-face scale doesn’t capture anywhere near the totality of the pain experience.” — David Thomas of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse
Certain medications also can be detected by other changes in a resting pupil, she said. Last month the Food and Drug Administration announced it would help AlgometRx, a biotech company Finkel founded, speed development of the device as a rapid drug screen.
Looking deeper than the eyes, scientists at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital found MRI scans revealed patterns of inflammation in the brain that identified either fibromyalgia or chronic back pain.
Other researchers have found changes in brain activity — where different areas “light up” on scans — that signal certain types of pain. Still others are using electrodes on the scalp to measure pain through brain waves.
Ultimately, NIH wants to uncover biological markers that explain why some people recover from acute pain while others develop hard-to-treat chronic pain.
“Your brain changes with pain,” Thomas explained. “A zero-to-10 scale or a happy-face scale doesn’t capture anywhere near the totality of the pain experience.”

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Clovis Police Make DUI Arrest During Weekend Saturation Patrol

DON'T MISS

US Issues Iran-Related Sanctions on Network of Shipping Companies, Vessels

DON'T MISS

Wall Street Hits Over One-Week Low on Tariff Uncertainty, Data in Focus

DON'T MISS

US Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Use of Troops in Los Angeles

DON'T MISS

Thousands of Israeli Reservists Report for Duty, as Military Chief Clashes With Ministers

DON'T MISS

Vogue Appoints Chloe Malle to Succeed Anna Wintour as US Editorial Head

DON'T MISS

Garnet Fire in Fresno County Grows to 26,982 Acres, 12% Contained

DON'T MISS

US Construction Spending Dips in July

DON'T MISS

New Quake of Magnitude 5.5 Shakes Devastated Afghan Region as Death Toll Exceeds 1,400

DON'T MISS

Trump Set to Move Space Command Headquarters to Alabama From Colorado, Sources Say

UP NEXT

Trump Set to Move Space Command Headquarters to Alabama From Colorado, Sources Say

UP NEXT

Trump Says Rudy Giuliani Will Receive Top US Civilian Honor

UP NEXT

US Judge Blocks Deportations of Unaccompanied Migrant Children to Guatemala

UP NEXT

Trump Says He Will Order Voter ID Requirement for Every Vote

UP NEXT

Chicago Mayor Says Police Will Not Aid Federal Troops or Agents

UP NEXT

Judge Blocks Pillar of Trump’s Mass Deportation Campaign

UP NEXT

Dollar Trades Lower With Fed Cut In View, On Course For Monthly Drop

UP NEXT

New $250 Visa Fee Risks Deepening US Travel Slump

UP NEXT

Lawsuit Links CA Teen’s Suicide To Artificial Intelligence

UP NEXT

Hearing Ends Without Ruling On Trump’s Firing Of Fed Governor Cook

US Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Use of Troops in Los Angeles

1 hour ago

Thousands of Israeli Reservists Report for Duty, as Military Chief Clashes With Ministers

1 hour ago

Vogue Appoints Chloe Malle to Succeed Anna Wintour as US Editorial Head

1 hour ago

Garnet Fire in Fresno County Grows to 26,982 Acres, 12% Contained

1 hour ago

US Construction Spending Dips in July

1 hour ago

New Quake of Magnitude 5.5 Shakes Devastated Afghan Region as Death Toll Exceeds 1,400

1 hour ago

Trump Set to Move Space Command Headquarters to Alabama From Colorado, Sources Say

1 hour ago

Tulare County Authorities Investigate Porterville Shooting

15 hours ago

Trump’s World Liberty Token Falls in First Day of Trading

15 hours ago

Bessent Expects Supreme Court to Uphold Legality of Trump’s Tariffs but Eyes Plan B

15 hours ago

Clovis Police Make DUI Arrest During Weekend Saturation Patrol

Clovis police arrested one driver on suspicion of DUI during a saturation patrol Saturday night that targeted impaired driving, the departme...

42 minutes ago

42 minutes ago

Clovis Police Make DUI Arrest During Weekend Saturation Patrol

United States Department of the Treasury logo and U.S. flag are seen in this illustration taken April 23, 2025. (Reuters File)
45 minutes ago

US Issues Iran-Related Sanctions on Network of Shipping Companies, Vessels

A view shows the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Wall Street entrance in New York City, U.S., April 7, 2025. (Reuters File)
48 minutes ago

Wall Street Hits Over One-Week Low on Tariff Uncertainty, Data in Focus

National Guard troops wear gas masks during protests against federal immigration sweeps, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 12, 2025. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

US Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Use of Troops in Los Angeles

An Israeli soldier stands on top of a military vehicle at the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, August 26, 2025. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

Thousands of Israeli Reservists Report for Duty, as Military Chief Clashes With Ministers

Anna Wintour attends opening remarks during a press preview of The Costume Institute's exhibition "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, U.S., May 5, 2025. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

Vogue Appoints Chloe Malle to Succeed Anna Wintour as US Editorial Head

A lightning-sparked wildfire in the Sierra National Forest has burned 24,851 acres and is 12% contained, prompting evacuation orders for several zones in Fresno County as more than 1,470 firefighters work to contain the blaze amid thunderstorm threats, officials said Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (U.S. Forest Service)
1 hour ago

Garnet Fire in Fresno County Grows to 26,982 Acres, 12% Contained

Construction workers are shown at work on a multi-unit residential housing project in Encinitas, California, U.S., July 28, 2025. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

US Construction Spending Dips in July

Search

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Send this to a friend