Chronic pain: retraining the brain's response

A New Zealand health-tech company is trialling technology that could help sufferers of chronic pain 'retrain' how their brain responds to nerve signals from the body. Exsurgo has developed a headset that uses electroencephalography (EEG) neurofeedback to monitor a patient's brain activity, feeding that data back to the patient in a way that reinforces positive changes to the pain signals. It offers an alternative treatment to traditional drug-based therapies for chronic pain, which can carry risks of side effects or addiction. Chronic pain affects up to one in five people around the world and is a massive burden on healthcare systems and economies, costing the New Zealand economy $13-15 billion annually. The New Zealand trial will be the world's largest clinical trial using EEG neurofeedback. Kathryn speaks with Richard Little, the chief executive of Exsurgo.