Study aims to better understand pain in humans and horses

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Researchers are teaming up to study osteoarthritic pain in horses — and better understand how pain manifests in both humans and animals.
Osteoarthritis is a debilitating condition traditionally defined by the breakdown of cartilage — though nowadays, science recognizes it as a disease that can affect the joint in its entirety.
But when it comes to studying arthritis-related pain, some roadblocks appear: Namely, the extent of joint degeneration does not always correspond with the level of pain patients experience. This mismatch complicates the development of effective solutions for pain.
But similar to people, horses with osteoarthritis experience a progression of the disease over several years — and also mirror the variety of ways pain associated with the condition can manifest in human patients.
By studying pain in horses, a team of University of Florida researchers hope to revolutionize the understanding and treatment of osteoarthritis pain by leveraging equine patients to model pain reports.
In short, the project aims to create well-validated ways to measure pain that will help researchers develop non-opioid painkilling therapies, addressing a critical technological gap in pain assessment and management.
A National Institutes of Health grant supporting the study relies on the multifaceted expertise of its researchers, who come from veterinary science, engineering, dentistry and agricultural sciences.
At the end of the day, humans have relied on horses for hundreds of years — maybe it’s only natural we’d both be experiencing knee pain. Perhaps it’s also fitting that animals’ creaky knees might help us learn how to live with our own.