Psychobiological mechanisms of pain persistence (PainPersist H2020)

New and effective technique for pain relief

Pain is a vital warning signal, a sign that something may be wrong. More than 10 % of adults suffer from chronic or persistent pain that cannot be relieved, despite medication and treatment. The EU-funded PainPersist project proposes a radically new approach and will carry out experimental studies on the early development of pain persistence. It will design psychological interventions directed at negative expectations, control and reward in long-term pain studies. Based on modern neurobiological methods such as MRI, PainPersist will investigate the mechanisms of treatments that could prevent the development of persistent pain. An innovative pain assessment device will be developed to enable users to gain perceived control of the pain and enable relief from suffering.