Baffling Chronic Pain Linked to Rewiring of Brain

As posted on
CHICAGO — Scientists peered at the brains of people with a baffling chronic pain condition and
discovered something surprising. Their brains looked like an inept cable guy had changed the
hookups, rewiring the areas related to emotion, pain perception and the temperature of their skin.
The new finding by scientists at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School [...]

The Brain in Chronic CRPS Pain: Abnormal Gray-White Matter Interactions in Emotional and Autonomic Regions

PY. Geha, MN. Baliki, RN. Harden, WR. Bauer, TB. Parrish, AV. Apkarian
Chronic complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a debilitating pain condition accompanied by autonomic abnormalities. We investigated gray matter morphometry and white matter anisotropy in CRPS patients and matched controls. Patients exhibited a disrupted relationship between white matter anisotropy and whole-brain gray matter volume; [...]

Fibromyalgia: A Disorder of the Brain?

P Schweinhardt, KM. Sauro, MC Bushnell
This article presents evidence that fibromyalgia patients have alterations in CNS anatomy, physiology, and chemistry that potentially contribute to the symptoms experienced by these patients. There is substantial psychophysical evidence that fibromyalgia patients perceive pain and other noxious stimuli differently than healthy individuals and that normal pain modulatory systems, such [...]

Chronic Back Pain Is Associated with Decreased Prefrontal and Thalamic Gray Matter Density

Apkarian AV, Sosa Y, Sonty S, Levy RM, Harden RN, Parrish TB, Gitelman DR.
The role of the brain in chronic pain conditions remains speculative. We compared brain morphology of 26 chronic back pain (CBP) patients to matched control subjects, using magnetic resonance imaging brain scan data and automated analysis techniques. CBP patients were divided into [...]