Structure Of The Brain May Predispose You To Chronic Pain

September 18, 2013

[ Watch the Video: Pain in the Brain with Dr. Vania Apkarian ]

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

By using brain scans on chronic pain sufferers, neuroscientists based in Chicago have discovered a connection between the brain and experiencing chronic pain, according to a report in the journal Pain.

We may have found an anatomical marker for chronic pain in the brain, said study author Vania Apkarian, a professor of physiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

About 23 percent of individuals with low back pain are chronic, or long-term, sufferers. While some sources of pain can be seen at the site of injury, recent research indicates that the brain may be more involved with chronic pain than previously thought.

Currently we know very little about why some patients suffer chronic low back pain, said Dr. Debra Babcock, a program director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). The earlier we detect pain will become chronic, the better we may be able to treat patients.

The research team began by scanning the brains of 46 volunteers who reported low back pain for about three months before coming to a hospital for treatment, but who had not experienced any pain for at least a year before onset.

The researchers scanned the subjects brains and evaluated their pain four times over the course of one year. About half of the subjects recovered at some point during the course of the study, while the other half reported persistent pain throughout.

A scanning technique used by the researchers called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measured the structure of participants white matter, or the nerve cells, which connect brain cells in different regions of the brain. The team was able to discover a marked difference in white matter between the subjects who recovered from chronic pain and those who felt pain throughout the year.

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Structure Of The Brain May Predispose You To Chronic Pain