Baseline brain activity predicts response to neuromodulatory pain treatment.
Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) December 1, 2014 Mark P Jensen, Leslie H Sherlin, Felipe Fregni et al.
Baseline theta brain oscillations measured by EEG predicted greater pain reduction from hypnotic analgesia in individuals with spinal cord injury and chronic pain. Less baseline alpha power predicted pain reduction with meditation. These findings suggest that different patients respond to different pain treatments, and that between-person differences in treatment response are related to brain states as measured by EEG. The results have implications for matching patients to treatments or influencing brain activity before treatment to enhance response.