Study scratches surface of quantifying pain

BOULDER — For the first time, scientists have been able to predict how much pain people are feeling by looking at images of their brains, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado-Boulder.

The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, may lead to the development of reliable methods doctors can use to objectively quantify a patient’s pain. Currently, pain intensity can only be measured based on a patient’s own description, which often includes rating the pain on a scale of one to 10. Objective measures of pain could confirm these pain reports and provide new…