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Does baseline EEG activity differ in the transition to or from a chronic pain state? A longitudinal study
Britt B Schuurman1, Catherine J Vossen2,3, Therese A M J van Amelsvoort1
1Department of Psychiatry & Neuropsychology, Faculty of Health Medicine and Life Sciences, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Background And Aim:
Identifying EEG brain markers might yield better mechanistic insights into how chronic pain develops and could be treated. An existing longitudinal EEG study gave us the opportunity to determine whether the development of pain is accompanied by less alpha power-ie, a "relaxed" brain state-and vice versa.
Methods:
Five-minute resting EEG with the eyes open was measured 2 times in 95 subjects at T0 (baseline) and T1 (6 months later). Based on the Short-Form Health Survey and Brief Pain Inventory questionnaire, subjects were divided into 4 groups: staying pain-free (n = 44), developing chronic pain (n = 8), becoming pain-free (n = 15), and ongoing chronic pain (n = 28). The EEG data of 14 electrodes were analyzed by multilevel regression.
Results:
The group that developed chronic pain demonstrated less power in the lower-frequency bands over time during the resting state EEG, whereas the transition to a pain-free state had the opposite pattern. Thus, the a priori hypothesis was confirmed.
Conclusions:
Transitions in pain states are linked to a change in baseline EEG activity. Future research is needed to replicate these results in a larger study sample and in targeted clinical populations. Furthermore, these results might be beneficial in optimizing neurofeedback algorithms for the treatment of chronic pain.
