Damaging Effects of Chronic Pain on the Brain

The Damaging Effects of Chronic Pain on the Brain : Illness and Health Blog | Wellescent.com

This article describes how ongoing pain damages the brain and how this damage is manifest.

How Does Chronic Pain Change Behavior?

Previous research has found a number of changes in mental function caused by chronic pain. One example is that those suffering from chronic pain have difficulty making even simple decisions and interacting with other people.  

Essentially, because of the constant internal brain stimulation, a person in chronic pain is impaired in a similar manner to those who are trying to multitask. Too many things happening in the brain at once makes concentration difficult.

Chronic Pain And Anxiety

researchers observed that patients in chronic pain have reduced brain activity in the areas of the brain that control the human response to pain. The researchers believe that the reduced control over pain signals causes the brain in these individuals to become extremely vigilant in anticipating future pain

Chronic Pain And Depression

believe that reduced pain control in the brain and the complex brain wiring changes causes increased emotional reaction to future experiences of pain and discomfort. They suggest that this explains why those with chronic pain are often resistant to treatment. Essentially, the changes in their brain contribute to a sense of hopelessness in being able to overcome the pain.

people suffering from depression have reduced ability to control their emotional state. It also supports studies that have identified that 30 to 60% of patients with chronic pain also develop depression.

Undoing The Brain Changes When Chronic Pain Ends

Researchers at McGill University found that chronic pain patients who were eventually treated for their pain were able to recover.

They found that the brains of these individuals began to increase in mass to levels that were normal. The area of the brain responsible for controlling pain also repaired itself and began to operate normally. Lastly, the number of gray matter cells also increased.

Most importantly, mental abilities returned to normal levels with these patients being able to again perform tasks requiring mental focus.

Chronic pain is debilitating both physically and mentally, causing damage to our brains and mental abilities. Many of the changes to the brain can subsequently make coping with the pain even more difficult. As a result, physicians need to make greater efforts in treating the chronic pain that patients experience. We now know that failing to do so becomes a failure to live up to the intent of the Hippocratic oath in “doing no harm”  

For those who develop chronic pain, the experience is life changing to say the least. Suffering from unrelenting pain every hour of the day is draining and will often cause drastic reductions in quality of life. Among those afflicted with such sustained suffering, the effects of the pain frequently intrude into many aspects of daily living.

Where general awareness is far less, however, is with respect to the effects of chronic pain on the body. In particular, chronic pain changes the way that the brain works.

Poorly treated long term pain leads to a form of brain injury in patients. This suggests that physicians have a greater responsibility in taking steps to reduce the pain that their patients experience.

when pain becomes chronic, such as in the case of nerve pain, it no longer serves its primitive role in prompting a fight or flight response. Indeed, in modern society, where most individuals are distanced from threats of physical injury, chronic pain is a significant contributor to unnecessary suffering.

How Does The Brain Change In Response To Chronic Pain?

a front area of the brain largely associated with emotion is constantly active in people suffering with chronic pain. This contrasts with the normal activity of the brain where changing activities and thoughts cause different areas of the brain to become active while other areas become less active

Chronic Pain And Dying Brain Cells

The researchers believe that the result of this excessive activity is that the brain nerve cells or neurons in the specific overactive region of the brain wear out and die prematurely.

In one study, the research recorded as much as an 11% reduction in the overall size of the brain in those suffering from such ongoing pain. This sort of reduction in brain material typically takes place over 1 or 2 decades in healthy individuals.

Chronic Pain And Brain Rewiring

In addition to the changes in gray matter, the constant nerve activity and firing of these nerves also causes the nerves involved in communication to rewire in ways that are very different than in a normal brain. These nerve cells are the brain’s white matter or “cabling” and they tend to form more complex wiring patterns for chronic pain sufferers. In particular, they form more links between the parts of the brain that process pain, stress and emotions.

the changes in brain activity in chronic pain sufferers also affect the area of the brain responsible for directing sensory stimulation. The cells in this area become less used and atrophy over time causing this area of the brain to shrink.  

This article describes exactly the problems I have with my thinking: I can’t make decisions, I can’t concentrate or focus on anything for long, my memory is terrible,I feel frazzled and confused most of the time, as if everything is happening at once.

 

Related Links

• http://www.getcited.org/pub/102693079
• http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus06.pdf
• http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2008/02/chronicpain.html
• http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/65/11/1275
• http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2008/11/chronicpain.html
• http://www.rsna.org/rsna/media/pr2006-2/chronic_back_pain-2.cfm
• http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2004/11/chronic.html
• http://apkarianlab.northwestern.edu/publications/Papers/20100414_Baliki.pdf
• http://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/item/?item_id=174398