Even neuroimaging isn't enough. fMRI doesn't have a great track record for predicting pain. It works to an extent, but it's not like there's a simple area that lets you accurately and directly decode the pain level someone is experiencing. And there's no new neuroimaging in the pipeline that would let us do this in a clinically relevant setting. There's a lot of hype around various optical methods, but it'll be a long road even if they work.
In the meantime, we should take much more advantage of the gap between the sensory and the affective components!
There are many other science-based pain management methods than just drugs. These other methods don't change the sensory part, the pain is there, but they can dramatically change the quality of your life with how you feel the pain.
CBT is very effective for pain management. Even something as simple as distracting yourself from a painful stimulus like a medical procedure can make a huge difference.
For example, your doctor doesn't routinely tell you to show your kids a fun video while they get a shot. But it makes a massive quality of life difference. Without Elmo, my daughter will cry for 5-10 minutes and just be miserable for half an hour. With Elmo, the shot comes, she's annoyed, there are tears for a 5-10 seconds, and then she's fine. There's no reason to not make this routine, except that we think of pain as something entirely objective instead of something that is largely subjective.
I think this research falls into that trap of "This is an important problem, this solution is obviously bad, but we have no good ones, so let's do it." This is likely to cause far more pain than to help anyone.
There are other MR techniques that show promise. The below links are for disc pain assessment. As a tech at a high volume spine site, the DeVa technique is fairly appealing, as spectro is slow.
In the meantime, we should take much more advantage of the gap between the sensory and the affective components!
There are many other science-based pain management methods than just drugs. These other methods don't change the sensory part, the pain is there, but they can dramatically change the quality of your life with how you feel the pain.
CBT is very effective for pain management. Even something as simple as distracting yourself from a painful stimulus like a medical procedure can make a huge difference.
For example, your doctor doesn't routinely tell you to show your kids a fun video while they get a shot. But it makes a massive quality of life difference. Without Elmo, my daughter will cry for 5-10 minutes and just be miserable for half an hour. With Elmo, the shot comes, she's annoyed, there are tears for a 5-10 seconds, and then she's fine. There's no reason to not make this routine, except that we think of pain as something entirely objective instead of something that is largely subjective.
I think this research falls into that trap of "This is an important problem, this solution is obviously bad, but we have no good ones, so let's do it." This is likely to cause far more pain than to help anyone.