Does chronic pain affect the body as well as the brain?

Growing up, my mother installed in her daughters, the hatred of doctors.  My mother got polio when she was just three years old.  She had numerous operations and was in hospital for a very long time.  It’s no wonder why she hated doctors so much.  My mother was in a teaching hospital, and the interns would do their regular morning rounds with a doctor.  The doctor would ask the interns, why my mother was there and was the diagnoses was, and what the treatment was.  My mother was so used to this, she knew the answer by then, and the doctor would say to the interns, shame on you, even a kid knows the answers.

My mother would refer to everything being muscular; I guess she was so used to that, growing up as a kid, because polio attacks the muscles.

Growing up as children we would often think that it was in our minds.  All my sister and I would withhold going to the doctor.

My eldest sister has a very bad back, not sure if this conditions is inherited or for other reasons.  She has had several operations on her back.  The last operation was over a year ago.  Everyone tells her that she should be fine by now and she should not be experiencing chronic back pain.

She had been putting of going to the doctor, in a way not sure, if this back pain was in her mind.  She knew a MIR was necessary and she also knew that the medical aid would not be willing to pay so soon after the first MIR.

Finally she did go to a doctor, and the doctor put her on medication that was for mind control, now with my sister, that is the wrong thing to tell her as she already thinks that it is in her mind already.

It’s a fairly new treatment that they are trying, for some people it works.  What they mean by mind control, the drug prevents messages reaching the brain, the brain no longer receives the messages from the parts that are sending the message, in the case of my sister, and it was her lower back.  The drug did not help very much with the pain but what my sister did find she could think clearer than she normally used to do.

When we are in pain, it's hard to think about anything else. The pain takes over; we turn inward. Daily tasks such as getting dressed or making dinner take a great deal more effort. It's hard to stay focused and proceed from one step to the next.

What happens then to someone with chronic pain? Does the continual presence of pain change the brain both physiological and anatomically?  If so, are these changes reversible? A recent article(link is external) in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests that the answer to both of these questions may be yes.

In this study, eighteen adult patients with chronic low back pain were studied. The investigators performed functional MRIs on the patients before and six months after they received treatment for their pain. During this same period, brain scans were also taken from sixteen healthy, control participants. The investigators found several areas of the cerebral cortex that were thinner in patients than in controls, including a region in the frontal cortex called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). This area may play a role both in pain modulation and in the performance of attention-demanding, cognitive tasks.

During the brain scans, participants performed a cognitive task which consisted of distinguishing a visual target from other characters. Although patients and controls performed the task equally well, the patients showed more activation of several brain regions including the DLPFC. Since pain is an attention -demanding process, the patients may have had to exert extra effort to stay focused on the task, and this effort may have been reflected in increased brain activity.

After treatment, (spinal surgery or joint block), the majority of patients experienced pain relief. Strikingly, the thickness of the DLPFC increased in every patients who reported an improvement in his or her pain, while the DLPFC did not show an increase in thickness in two out of the three patients who did not respond to treatment. Patients whose pain had subsided also activated the DPLFC to a smaller extent when performing the cognitive task. Indeed, activation of this area now resembled that of control subjects.

When an individual recovers from chronic pain, it's not only the body that recovers. The brain recovers too.

Finally my sister medical aid agreed to another MIR, they did find another problem, they are not so sure on the treatment plan, and they are doing numerous test, which are very expensive.  I know that this brings huge relieve to her, as feeling that the pain is all in her mind, is terrible to feel this way.  Also the fear of another back operation.

Never Doubt [yourself]

Someone believes in you

Never ever flinch

Someone is waiting for you

Never ever cringe

When they are looking

That means they like what they see

When you noticed them listening

You have something interesting to say

When they laugh

You make them happy

When they talk about you

Be glad that they have time for you

When they take something from you

That means they treasure what you own

When they say they love you

Never doubt; they may mean what they say

When someone says they care about you

Give them a chance; you may miss out 

Kay Barcelon