Pain, once considered just a symptom of injury, has increasingly transformed into the problem itself. Millions around the world, among them military veterans, are coping with chronic pain. A new study at Rambam Health Care Campus on the “chronification” of pain is addressing this urgent public health challenge.

Rambam researchers have joined forces with colleagues from the US Department of Defense and others, to try and understand why some individuals will recover completely from an injury, while others will be left with chronic and enduring pain. The goal of this multi-center, international study is to develop a model to predict who will develop chronic pain after an injury.

“From what we now know about the chronification process, many factors are involved, including the patient’s own distinct pain processing mechanisms, their brain structure and the connectivity between its various parts, as well as genetic and psychological factors,” explains Professor David Yarnitzky, Director of Rambam’s Department of Neurology, who started the study and leads its Israeli team. “If we succeed in better understanding these processes, and are able to build a predictive model, this will be a genuine breakthrough in the field of pain medicine.”

In the framework of the study, patients who have sustained head and neck injuries undergo a clinical evaluation of their pain processing mechanisms, a psychological evaluation, MRI brain scan, EEG, and genetic profiling. Their clinical condition is then followed up for a period of one year, and the findings analyzed.

As an internationally-renowned trauma center, Rambam has gained a wealth of expertise in this field from treating thousands of civilian and military injuries. The study is taking place in centers in Israel, the US, Canada, and Australia.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)