Neuroscientists at Brown University's Carney Institute for Brain Science have developed a smartphone app for people who are suffering with chronic pain, according to Cision PR Newswire.
The app, SOMA, allows people who have acute and chronic pain to monitor and study patterns in their mood, pain and daily activities. Users can also track which activities influence their pain in positive or negative ways. By collecting information from the app, Carney scientists are exploring treatments that can be delivered through it and be tested in clinical trials.
According to the Institute, chronic pain outlasts injuries and illnesses, may last a lifetime and may be resistant to over-the-counter medications. The condition is also incredibly common in the U.S., with one in five adults reporting experiencing pain on most days, if not every day, in 2022. Research suggests that chronic pain may be the result of changes in brain circuits that are involved in learning and memory, but most pain treatments focus exclusively on the periphery instead of the brain.
SOMA is currently available for free download in the App Store and Google Play Store. The app, made possible by the Institute's new Brainstorm Program, focuses on the role that learning and expectation of pain plays in transitioning from acute to chronic pain.
"With more detailed data gathered from users of SOMA, health care providers will be able to offer precision medical treatments that target the root cause of chronic pain," Cision PR Newswire says.
"We are hoping that SOMA will help many monitor their pain and recovery and build the basis for groundbreaking science that will improve pain treatment," Professor Frederike Petzschner, head of the Psychiatry, Embodiment and Computation Lab at the Carney Institute for Brain Science and primary investigator behind the SOMA project, told Cision PR Newswire.
