Nerve Stimulation Helps Manage Pain Without Opioids

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Researchers at the University of Wisconsin (UW) are adapting a minimally invasive, safer approach to electrically treat pain directly at the source as part of the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative. It is an advance from one of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering’s (NIBIB’s) first grants under the HEAL initiative, launched in 2018 to find solutions to the opioid crisis.

Neuromodulation therapies apply electrical stimulation to nerves to treat conditions like chronic lower back pain, paralysis, incontinence, migraines, sleep apnea, and obesity. The UW technology was developed by the startup Neuronoff, Inc., primarily using private funding and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funding, and the infusion of NIH support will prepare the device for its first-in-human clinical trials.

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The key innovation is a new type of electrode that may make neuromodulation therapies less invasive, less costly, less painful, more reliable, and much easier to scale for a larger number of patients.

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