It’s understandable that people who are in constant physical pain would experience a high level of stress and fatigue.
But
a recent study by researchers at UC Irvine and UCLA shows chronic pain
sufferers also are more vulnerable to mental and emotional illnesses
such as anxiety and depression and that there’s a biological link
between the mental and physical pain.
Catherine Cahill, an
associate professor of anesthesiology and perioperative care at UCI, has
been working with colleagues at the UCLA Brain Research Institute to
study the relationship between chronic pain and mood disorders.
The
result? They found that chronic pain causes inflammation in regions of
the brain that deal with reward and motivation, causing patients to be
more susceptible to mood disorders.
Chronic pain is defined as
pain lasting for an extended period, usually more than 12 weeks,
according to the National Institutes of Health. More than 100 million
Americans are affected by chronic pain, according to a recent report by
the Institute of Medicine.
Cahill and the research team studied
brain inflammation in rodents and its effect on the neural system.
Their paper, published June 3 in The Journal of Neuroscience, shows a
link between brain inflammation caused by chronic pain and mood
disorders.
“Many studies in depression literature show that one
of the causes for the development of mood disorders is a disruption in
the dopamine circuitry,” Cahill said, referring to the brain chemical
associated with happiness and pleasure. “My study was on the link
between the very, very high (co-existence) of anxiety and depression in
those patients with chronic pain. This was really never shown before.”
According
to the study, the brain inflammation caused by pain triggers the
activation of cells called microglia, which hinder the release of
dopamine.
Cahill noted that the study has potentially significant
implications on how doctors might treat future patients experiencing
mood disorders alongside chronic pain. Her research, she added, also
sheds light on addiction, an illness that’s affected by the reward and
motivation system of the brain.
Cahill said she hopes her
research can eventually have clinical impact. She is planning to test an
existing drug compound that could restore the flow of dopamine.
“This
is a new strategy to try to restore the reward circuitry that has both
implications on addiction-like disorders and mood disorders,” she said..
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/-666693--.html
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