The culprit of chronic pain was increased excitability
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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American scientists have proved that the emotional reaction of a person can cause chronic pain. The results of the research team led by Professor Vania Apkarian from Northwestern University are published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Chronic pain is usually attributed to pain that lasts longer than the usual healing period and does not stop for more than six months, and also does not lend itself to medical treatment effective for acute pain resulting from trauma. Apkarian with colleagues for about 20 years have tried to understand the causes of chronic pain. In their early studies, they were able to detect changes in the brain that are characteristic of patients who developed this condition. However, scientists did not know whether these changes are the cause of the onset of pain, or whether certain areas of the brain are transformed because of prolonged painful sensations.
For their study, the scientists selected 39 people who experienced mild back pain after injury, as well as a control group of healthy people. All volunteers were brainwashed four times a year, the condition of which the researchers compared with the dynamics of pain. A year later, 20 patients were completely healthy, while 19 of them continued to suffer from chronic pain.
Apkarian notes that initially the intensity of pain was the same in all patients. Gradually, 19 volunteers developed chronic low back pain.
In volunteers with chronic pain, scientists discovered an unusually close relationship between the prefrontal cortex responsible for emotions and the contiguous nucleus, which is part of the so-called pleasure center. According to the results of the scan, in these patients these two regions of the brain acted together. By how closely the prefrontal cortex and the adjacent nucleus interact, scientists with an accuracy of 85 percent can predict whether the patient's acute pain will go to chronic or not.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Apkarian said that this study will also help to establish a link between the development of chronic pain and a person's tendency to develop bad habits, for which the pleasure center is responsible. "We believe that the mechanism of chronic pain is akin to the mechanism of the development of addictions," the professor noted.
Professor believes that the development of chronic pain is not enough pain that occurs as a result of trauma, but also a certain emotional state and a tendency to increased excitability.