http://wcbs880.com/osgood/local_story_328170559.html

WCBS
Tuesday November 23, 2004

Nov 23, 2004 4:38 pm US/Eastern

CHRONIC BACK PAIN CAN SHRINK YOUR BRAIN

Chronic back pain can hurt so much you can't think straight. Ask any of the millions of people who have it, and they'll tell you. And that is not just a figure of speech. Research at Northwestern University Medical School shows that chronic back pain literally shrinks the brain over time by as much as eleven percent.

Dr. Vania Apkarian, associate professor of physiology at Northwestern University's Feinberg Medical School, where this first research connecting chronic back pain with brain changes was done, using MRI brain scan data: "Our data clearly shows that the longer the chronic pain is, the more expansive is the brain atrophy."

In the Journal of Neuroscience is a study that shows that 25% of the 25% of Americans who have chronic back pain also have brain shrinkage.

APKARIAN: "The reasons why the chronic pain is impacting the brain is something we do not understand yet but, by in large we suspect that the suffering of the pain itself is directly impacting the integrity of the brain. We observe that somewhere between five to eleven percent decrease in gray matter density in the patients that have chronic back pain as compared to normal subjects."

11% is the equivalent to the amount of gray matter lost in 10 to 20 years of AGING. So if you have chronic back pain year in and year out, it can possibly make you think like a much older person than you are, says Dr. Apkarian.

APKARIAN: "The longer the pain is, the more the shrinkage of the brain, so the pain is directly impacting on the health of the brain itself."

And not only in thinking, but also in, feelings and choices you make.

APKARIAN: "Patients with chronic pain seem to have abnormalities in their emotional assessments of decision making."