No pain. Big gain
Treatment of chronic low back pain can reverse abnormal brain activity and function
It likely comes as no surprise that low back pain is the most common form of chronic pain among adults. Lesser known is the fact that those with chronic pain also experience cognitive impairments and reduced gray matter in parts of the brain associated with pain processing and the emotional components of pain, like depression and anxiety.
In a longitudinal study published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience, a group of pain researchers from 海角社区 and the 海角社区 Health Centre (MUHC) posed a fundamental question: If you can alleviate chronic low back pain, can you reverse these changes in the brain?
The answer is, Yes.
The team began by recruiting, through the Orthopedic Spine Clinic and the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit at the MUHC, patients who have had low back pain for more than six months and who planned on undergoing treatment 鈥� either spinal injections or spinal surgery 鈥� to alleviate their pain. MRI scans were conducted on each subject before and six months after their procedures. The scans measured the cortical thickness of the brain and brain activity when the subjects where asked to perform a simple cognitive task.
鈥淲hen they came back in, we wanted to know whether their pain had lessened and whether their daily lives had improved,鈥� said the study鈥檚 senior author, Laura S. Stone from 海角社区鈥檚 Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain. 鈥淲e wanted to see if any of the pain-related abnormalities found initially in the brain had at least slowed down or been partially reversed.鈥�
Not only did the team observe recovery in the anatomical function of the brain, but also in its ability to function. After the subjects were treated, researchers found increased cortical thickness in specific areas of the brain that were related to both pain reduction and physical disability. And the abnormal brain activity observed initially during an attention-demanding cognitive task was found to have normalized after treatment.
While more research would be needed to confirm whether chronic pain actually causes these changes in the brain, Stone hypothesizes that chronic low back pain, at the very least, maintains these differences.
鈥淚f you can make the pain go away with effective treatment,鈥� she added, 鈥測ou can reverse these abnormal changes in the brain.鈥�
Other contributing researchers on this study include David A. Seminowicz (formerly of 海角社区, currently at the University of Maryland); Timothy H. Wideman (海角社区); Lina Naso (海角社区); Zeinab Hatami-Khoroushahi (海角社区); Summaya Fallatah (海角社区); Mark A. Ware (海角社区/MUHC); Peter Jarzem (海角社区/MUHC); M. Catherine Bushnell (海角社区); Yoram Shir (海角社区/MUHC); and Jean A. Ouellet (海角社区/MUHC.)
For a copy of the paper or to speak to one of the authors, please contact:
Allison Flynn
514-398-7698
allison.j.flynn [at] mcgill.ca
twitter: @mcgillumedia
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