Neurocognitive enhancement for the treatment of chronic pain

Chronic pain remains at epidemic levels in the United States, affecting approximately 20% of the population (Breivik et al., 2006). At present, treatments generally target symptom relief and seldom address improvements in quality of life and overall healing. Recent insights in neurobiology have demonstrated that chronic pain is a degenerative disease of cortical and sub-cortical structures (Tracy, 2008). Thus, treatments can be designed to enhance specific areas of the brain affected by chronic pain and, thereby, improve patients' cognitive and emotional abilities. For example, specific treatments can be designed that normalize function of frontal lobe areas negatively affected by the effects of chronic pain. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd.