Brain training game offers drug-free relief for chronic nerve pain

A small trial of an interactive brain-training game has offered early hope for people living with chronic nerve pain. The technology, called PainWaive, teaches users to shift brainwave patterns linked to ongoing pain. It may one day provide a drug-free, at-home option for people who need more than pills.

The system was developed by researchers at UNSW Sydney. A recent trial led by Professor Sylvia Gustin and Dr. Negin Hesam-Shariati from the NeuroRecovery Research Hub showed promising results.

PainWaive uses an EEG headset and tablet-based game. The headset tracks brain activity in real time. As users adjust their brainwaves, the game responds on screen. The goal is to guide abnormal pain-linked activity toward a healthier pattern.

Neuropathic pain happens when nerves or the nervous system send faulty pain signals. It can feel like burning, stabbing, stinging, or electric shock. For many people, it does not respond well to common treatments.

Prof. Gustin’s earlier work found changes in the thalamus, a key relay center in the brain. This area helps process pain signals. People with neuropathic pain often show more slow theta waves, fewer alpha waves, and more fast high beta waves.

“The brainwaves of people with neuropathic pain show a distinct pattern: more slow theta waves, fewer alpha waves, and more fast, high beta waves,” Prof. Gustin says.

She wondered whether a treatment could directly target those brainwaves. PainWaive was built to test that idea.

Four people took part in the first trial. Each received a home kit with an EEG headset and a tablet loaded with the game app. They also received instructions and mental strategy tips.

Those strategies included relaxing, focusing attention, and thinking about happy memories. The aim was to help users shift their brain activity while watching the game respond.

The trial lasted four weeks. Researchers compared hundreds of measures before, during, and after treatment. These included pain intensity and how much pain disrupted daily life.

Participants met with researchers by Zoom at first. After only a couple of sessions, they could run the treatment on their own.

“After just a couple of Zoom sessions, participants were able to run the treatment entirely on their own,” says Dr. Hesam-Shariati.

Three of the four participants had significant pain reductions. The improvements became clearer near the end of treatment. Overall, the relief in those three people was comparable to, or greater than, pain relief seen with opioids.

That finding is striking because opioids can carry serious risks. They may cause dependence, side effects, and overdose. A non-drug tool could give patients another path.

Still, researchers urge caution. The study was small and early. It cannot prove the treatment works for everyone.

“Restrictions in the study’s size, design and duration limit our ability to generalise the findings or rule out placebo effects,” Dr. Hesam-Shariati says. “But the results we’ve seen are exciting and give us confidence to move to the next stage and our larger trial.”

One of PainWaive’s most important features is access. The team wanted a tool people could use without constant clinic visits.

Participants liked using the system in their own homes. That matters for people whose pain makes travel difficult. It also matters for people with limited access to specialist care.

“Participants felt empowered to manage their pain in their own environment. That’s a huge part of what makes this special,” says Dr. Hesam-Shariati.

The team first looked at commercial EEG systems. Many were too costly or lacked the signal quality needed. So the researchers built their own system.

“Everything except the open-source EEG board was built in-house,” says Dr. Hesam-Shariati. “And soon, even that will be replaced by a custom-designed board.”

Existing EEG systems can cost from $1,000 to $20,000. The UNSW team reduced the cost of each headset to about $300 through 3D printing.

The headset uses saline-based wet electrodes. These improve signal quality and target the sensorimotor cortex, a brain region tied to movement and sensation.

“We’ve worked closely with patients to ensure the headset is lightweight, comfortable, and user-friendly,” says Prof. Gustin.

A lower-cost system could make brain-based pain treatment more realistic. It could also help researchers test the tool in larger groups.

The team is now recruiting for two upcoming trials. One will test PainWaive for chronic spinal pain. The other will study neuropathic pain in people with spinal cord injury.

Larger studies will help answer key questions. Researchers need to know how long the benefits last. They also need to know who responds best and why.

For now, the early findings offer hope. They suggest some people may learn to quiet pain-linked brain activity. With more research, brain training could become part of future pain care.

This research could help shift chronic pain treatment toward safer, more personal care. If larger trials confirm the results, people with nerve pain may gain a non-invasive option they can use at home. That could reduce reliance on opioids and make care easier for patients who struggle to attend clinics.

The findings also help scientists better understand pain as a brain-based condition. PainWaive does not simply mask symptoms. It aims to train the brain patterns linked to pain processing.

In the future, this approach could support people with spinal pain, spinal cord injury, and other hard-to-treat nerve pain conditions.

Research findings are available online in the Journal of Pain.

The original story "Brain training game offers drug-free relief for chronic nerve pain" is published in The Brighter Side of News.

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