Chronic back pain linked to physical changes in the brain

Thursday, March 01, 2007 by: M. T. Whitney
Tags: back pain, chronic pain, health news

(NewsTarget) A team of German researchers has linked chronic back pain to changes in the pain-processing areas of the brain. The research may yield new ways to treat the issue, which, according to the web site WebMD.com, affects 80 percent of Americans during their lifetimes.

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What you need to know - Conventional View

• The researchers found that people with chronic back pain have higher stimuli in the microstructure of the pain-processing area of their brains.

• The researchers say their finding may give reasons to consider chronic back pain a treatable condition.

• The research utilized a brain image-mapping technique called Diffusion Tensor Imaging and compared sufferers with healthy volunteers.

• The researchers said more information was needed to tell whether simulation in the microstructure is created by back pain or if the stimulation itself causes the pain.

• The pain-processing area of the brain is located in the somatosensory system, a part of the primary sensory cortex within the parietal lobe of the brain. It also affects feelings of emotion and stress.

• Incidentally, according to the web site Spine-health.com, chronic back pain can be linked to an increased chance of depression among its sufferers.

• "DTI may help explain what's happening for some of these patients, and direct therapeutic attention from the spine to the brain," said study co-author Gustav Schelling of the Department of Anaesthesiology at Munich University.

Bottom line

• Chronic back pain is linked to the pain-processing area of the brain, which may change the way the issue is considered and treated.