Another electrical method for controlling pain, especially the widespread and severe pain of advanced cancer, is through surgically implanted electrodes in the brain.  The patient determines when and how much stimulation is needed by operating an external transmitter that beams electronic signals to a receiver under the skin that is connected to the electrodes.

As research continues to reveal the role of endorphins in the brain, neuroscientists have been able to draw more detailed brain maps of the area and pathways important in pain perception and control.  Clinical investigators have tested chronic pain patients and found that they often have lower-than-normal levels of endorphins in their spinal fluid.  If you could just boost their stores with man-made endorphins, perhaps the problems  of chronic pain patients could be solved.

Some endorphins are quickly broken down after release from nerve cells.  Other endorphins are longer lasting, but there are problems in manufacturing the compounds in quantity and getting them into the right places in the brain or spinal cord.  In a few promising studies, clinical investigators have injected an endorphin called beta-endorphin under the membranes surrounding the spinal cord.  Patients reported relief lasting for many hours.  But spinal cord injections or other techniques designed to raise the level of endorphins circulating in the brain require surgery and hospitalization.