http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2004/11/30/chronic_pain_may_shrink_the_brain/
NEUROSCIENCE
Chronic pain may shrink the brain
Some of the changes that occur in the brains of people with chronic back
pain may be irreversible and render pain treatment ineffective, according to
researchers from Northwestern University. If true, it makes it all the more
important to treat pain early to prevent any permanent change, say Dr. Vania
Apkarian and Northwestern colleagues who scanned the brains of 26 patients with
chronic back pain and 26 healthy people. The brains of patients with chronic
pain caused by damage to the nervous system shrank by as much as 11 percent --
as much gray matter as is lost in 10 to 20 years of normal aging. It's still
unclear whether the changes are reversible, Apkarian said. Dr Nigel Lawes,
senior lecturer in biomedical science at St. Georges Medical School, London,
who was not involved in the study, said people with chronic back pain tended to
move in automatic ways that perpetuate the pain. Therapies to teach people how
to pay attention to and control their movement to limit this pain might help, he
said. "It might well be that it is reversible, but that depends on whether
they get the right treatment or not."BBC 
©
Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.