Cognitive Design

Nearly 40 million people in the US suffer from intractable and chronic pain at a cost of approximately $600 billion (yes billion) a year. Chronic pain is intractable when the injury is not enough to account for the continued pain.  There is something else at work – a brain state or psychological process. But what?

Researchers at Northwestern University might have an answer. After 10 years of work they now have compelling evidence that

… chronic pain develops the more two sections of the brain — related to emotional and motivational behavior — talk to each other. The more they communicate, the greater the chance a patient will develop chronic pain.

This means that if two people develop a similar injury, say a back injury, the person with higher levels of activity between two brain regions  (frontal cortex and the nucleus accumbens) will be more apt to develop chronic pain.  They also found:

“The more emotionally the brain reacts to the initial injury, the more likely the pain will persist after the injury has healed”

Both these findings are important for cognitive designers working on chronic pain applications.  A brain/psychological state versus an injury is a proximate cause in longer-term chronic pain. This means improvement is possible through psychological design and therapy versus just clinical medicine.  Ideally, the brain will be able to unlearn the pain.