United Press International
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
CHICAGO, Nov 22, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Chronic back pain shrinks the brain by as much as 11 percent, researchers at Northwestern University's Chicago campus said.
A. Vania Apkarian, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Northwestern University Institute of Neuroscience, found 1.3 cubic centimeters of gray matter -- the part of the brain that processes information and memory -- is lost for every year of chronic pain.
It had previously had been assumed the brain reverts to its normal state after chronic pain stops, the researchers said.
Apkarian used magnetic resonance imaging brain scan data to contrast brain images from 26 participants with chronic back pain for more than a year with those from matched normal subjects.
The researchers found the brain in those suffering chronic back pain was equivalent to the amount of gray matter lost in 10 to 20 years of normal aging. Brain atrophy has been linked to cognitive decline.
The study is published in Tuesday's The Journal of Neuroscience.
Copyright 2004 by United Press International.