Pain

Physicians need alternatives to opioid drugs. Could manipulating the microbiome or virtual-reality experiences have a role in easing pain?

Pain is defined subjectively, but an objective measure of the experience promises to transform its management

Precision-medicine approaches for chronic pain could help people to receive effective treatment from the start.

Sex hormones seem to have profound effects, but research mostly avoids the question of sex.

Pain from conditions such as endometriosis could be alleviated if the gut’s resident bacteria can be understood and tamed.

Non-invasive, non-pharmacological approaches such as virtual-reality therapy and yoga can help to relieve chronic pain.

A new strategy for developing analgesic drugs is needed to avoid a replay of the fiasco that led to life-shattering addictions.

Woolf and colleagues use single-cell transcriptomics to determine the gene signature of infiltrating immune cells and potential cell–cell interactions between receptors, ligands, ion channels and metabolites expressed on immune cells and sensory neurons in three models of pain.

Longitudinal imaging of nerve fibres in mice reveals that reinnervation after nerve injury can lead to neuropathic pain, which is mediated through aberrant patterns of reinnervation in denervated areas by nociceptors.

Spinal cord stimulation is seen as a last-resort therapy for the treatment of chronic pain. Controversies surrounding the treatment might be addressed through collaborative efforts to conduct innovative clinical trials and reach consensus on treatment guidelines.