Light therapy may alleviate chronic pain – interesting early findings

Green light-emitting diodes (LED) could become a future way of reducing pain, a team reports in the journal Pain.

Chronic pain is thought to affects between one-third and one-half of the population of the UK, corresponding to just under 28 million adults, according to a recent study in BMJ Open.

Current ways of managing chronic pain include medication such as opioids (which can have side effects) and interventional procedures in a multimodal approach. Scientists are on the lookout for new safe, effective and affordable approaches.

The new study

Rodents with neuropathic pain that were bathed in green LED showed more tolerance for thermal and tactile stimulus than rodents that were not bathed in green LED. The beneficial effects lasted for four days after exposure to the green LED. There were no negative side effects, visual and motor performance was not impaired and the rats did not build up any tolerance to the therapy.

“While the results of the green LED are still preliminary, it holds significant promise to manage some types of chronic pain,” explains Dr Mohab Ibrahim, lead author of the study.

The pain-relieving qualities of green LED are clear, but how it works remains a puzzle.

“Early studies show that green light is increasing the levels of circulating endogenous opioids, which may explain the pain-relieving effects,” outlines senior author, Rajesh Khanna. “Whether this will be observed in humans is not yet known and needs further work.”

The team is now testing green LED therapy in people with fibromyalgia.

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