Writing back in author’s sights after pain study
Posted: Monday May 15, 2023
Dunedin author Dr Lynley Hood is "charging ahead" with research for books she plans to write, after taking part in a chronic pain treatment study that had a surprising and very welcome possible side-effect - the restoration of her sight.
Dr Hood has lived with severely reduced vision for the past 12 years after developing an acute form of glaucoma, which made it very difficult for her to read and write.
"I lost the central vision in my left eye and it looked like TV static through my right eye, plus my dark/light adaptation was incredibly slow," she said.
Dr Hood was forced to give up her work as an author, and turned her mind towards finding ways to adapt to low vision for herself, and others. This included becoming a founding member of the Visual Impairment Charitable Trust Aotearoa (Victa), an organisation dedicated to supporting and providing a voice for people with low vision in New Zealand.
"By the time I did the brain stimulation study, I had accepted that my sight wasn’t going to get any better, only worse. And I had decided to just march on with life," she said.
After suffering a fall in December 2020, which caused severe lower back pain that was eventually diagnosed as a fractured pelvis, Dr Hood was intrigued by an advertisement for volunteers to take part in a University of Otago chronic pain treatment research project.
Led by Professor Dirk de Ridder and Dr Divya Adhia, the Dunedin School of Medicine research project, which began in May 2021, looked at the effects of brain stimulation on chronic pain.
Dr Hood joined the study group and attended brain stimulation sessions five days a week over four consecutive weeks, for a total of 20 sessions.
Along with her fellow research subjects, she wore a "cap" wired with electrodes, closed her eyes and relaxed, while electrical current was passed across her head.
The study had two groups - the main group, who received the electrical stimulation into the brain, and the "control" group, for whom the electrical current was passed across the scalp.
For Dr Hood, a member of the control group, the results were remarkable - her sight steadily returned to nearly 100% during the four weeks.
Mystified as to why this had happened, she consulted with her retinal specialist Dr Harry Bradshaw, who was astounded.
"The only thing I did differently in that time was to take part in that research, and so it seems most likely that it was the electrical stimulation that went into my eyes that helped restore my sight," she said.
The study’s leaders were themselves surprised and had taken the results to the University of Otago for further analysis of any possible commercial applications of the technique, Dr Hood said.
Keen to share her experience with fellow members of the Victa group, which meets in Dunedin next week, Dr Hood has invited the university’s Otago Innovation company commercialisation manager Dr Alexandra Tickle to speak about the next steps for the research.
• The Victa group will meet next Wednesday, from 1.30pm-3pm, in the Dunningham Suite, fourth floor, Dunedin Public Library. All welcome.