Pain

Recent research suggests that chronic pain affects as many as three percent of the worldwide population and there is evidence that chronic pain patients are twice as likely to commit suicide compared with the healthy population. It should also be remembered that the lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts in the chronic pain population is about ten percent. Although various innovative pharmacological preparations and formulas have been implemented into clinical practice in recent years, chronic pain in many patients has not been successfully maintained at an acceptable level, thus not allowing the patients to resume their life activities. Despite remarkable advances in pain management, chronic pain remains undertreated, depicting the need for new therapeutic approaches to chronic pain.

Findings collected in the past decade open exciting perspectives for clinical application of brain stimulation techniques in pain management, at least for selected populations of patients suffering chronic pain resistant to conventional therapy. Beyond this therapeutic purpose, both invasive and nonivasive brain stimulation approaches can help to further explore the relationship between cortical plasticity and pain. This book presents the latest findings.

Helena Knotkova, PhD is director of research, Institute of Non-invasive Brain Stimulation of New York, Research Division, Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care, Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, and assistant professor of neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, United States.
Ricardo A. Cruciani, MD, PhD is vice chairman and director of the Research Division in the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, New York; director of the Institute for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation in the same institution; and associate professor in the Department of Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, United States.
Joav Merrick, MD, DMSc is professor of child health and human development affiliated with Kentucky Children's Hospital, University of Kentucky, Lexington, United States; medical director of the Division for Mental Retardation, Ministry of Social Affairs, Jerusalem; and the founder and director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Israel.