Assessing Pain Research: A Narrative Review of Emerging Pain Methods, Their Technosocial Implications, and Opportunities for Multidisciplinary Approaches

Abstract

Pain research traverses many disciplines and methodologies. Yet, despite our understanding and field-wide acceptance of the multifactorial essence of pain as a sensory perception, emotional experience, and biopsychosocial condition, pain scientists and practitioners often remain siloed within their domain expertise and associated techniques. The context in which the field finds itself today—with increasing reliance on digital technologies, an on-going pandemic, and continued disparities in pain care—requires new collaborations and different approaches to measuring pain. Here, we review the state-of-the-art in human pain research, summarizing emerging practices and cutting-edge techniques across multiple methods and technologies. For each, we outline foreseeable technosocial considerations, reflecting on implications for standards of care, pain management, research, and societal impact. Through overviewing alternative data sources and varied ways of measuring pain and by reflecting on the concerns, limitations, and challenges facing the field, we hope to create critical dialogues, inspire more collaborations, and foster new ideas for future pain research methods.

Predicting and evaluating pain after surgery…Newer methods to the rescue?

“…As pain is significantly subjective, the gold standard for pain assessment has remained patient-reported or self-reported till now. [ 28 ] Self-reporting only measures the intensity and grossly misses the psychological and cognitive domains of pain. Although visual addition to self-reporting has been researched and clinically used, it has not thoroughly addressed the limitations.…”

A Review of Voice-Based Pain Detection in Adults Using Artificial Intelligence

“…However, its subjective nature is a challenge for effective pain management [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. The International Society for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage” [ 4 , 5 , 6 ]. The previous definition was revised in light of the many variables that affect how intense one’s painful episodes are, including past painful experiences, cultural and social contexts, individual pain tolerance, gender, age, and mental or emotional state [ 2 , 7 ].…”

How to make calibration less painful -- a proposition of an automatic, reliable and time-efficient procedure.

“…Despite of attempts to find better suited methods [5][6][7][8] , in both laboratory and clinical practice, subjective one-dimensional scales are used, which are known to suffer from certain limitations and weaknesses 9 . For instance, there are serious concerns about the linearity of the pain scores, hampering the use of mathematical calculations 10 to extrapolate values out of the calibration range, or otherwise forcing translations of complex non-linear perception onto an inaccurate linear scale 11 . The reach of these limitations is inconclusive, as some studies show that numerical rating scales (NRS) behave as a ratio scales 12,13 , while other works deny it 14,15 .…”