Exactly How Chronic Pain Affects the Brain Nigeria

There is increasing evidence that chronic pain is characterized
by alterations in brain structure and function. The advances in
brain imaging techniques in the last few decades have shifted our
appreciation of chronic pain conditions and has opened the door for
new and exciting treatment strategies. Advanced neuroimaging
techniques have reshaped the concept of chronic pain from a disease
affecting mainly the sensory system, to a condition in which
emotional and cognitive areas of the brain are affected.

Plasticity is a term used to describe the changes that occur in
the nervous system. Chronic pain has been shown to be associated
with neuroplasticity at several levels of the nervous system long
after the original cause of pain is gone. Several studies have
suggested a decrease in gray matter in pain-transmitting areas in
patients with constant pain, reinforcing the notion of chronic pain
as a progressive disease.

The brain and opioids

Chronic pain and the closely related overuse of opioid pain
medications (such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, and OxyContin) have
become dangerous problems. More people are disabled due to chronic
pain than any other reason and as doctors are prescribing more
painkillers and performing more surgeries, the number of people
suffering from chronic pain is growing. The U.S. Centers for
Disease Control describe opioid overdose as “the fastest growing
drug problem in the U.S.”¹

Novel and exciting science into the neurobiology of pain now
help us better understand why so many people are suffering and
gives us new insights and hope into how we can get better. The
brain processes information for all types of pain (acute, chronic
and emotional) in a similar way. It records pain as traumatic
events that require automatic responses from our nervous system
that we don’t “intellectually control.” This insight now allows us
opportunities to introduce therapies designed to inhibit the
exaggerated physiologic response of chronic pain of all types.

Just as people with long-standing pain need to alter their
thinking and behaviors related to their pain, as a society, we need
a shift in our philosophy and approach to this widespread problem
in order to avoid getting the same negative results we have
gotten.

Recent research in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD) has led to exciting new therapies for emotional
pain associated with traumatic events. The use of functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques provided a quantum
leap in our knowledge of what areas of the brain are involved with
the processing of induced pain and painful memories of trauma.

With more people suffering than ever before, the time for action
is now.