Brain Changes Found in Sufferers of Chronic Back Pain

Researchers in Germany have used a technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in a study that examined brains of healthy volunteers and those with chronic back pain. They discovered that the brain in patients with chronic back pain had a more complex, active microstructure in regions associated with pain-processing, emotion and stress response.

The study findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, held in Chicago recently. Researchers indicated that DTI demonstrates chronic pain is real and could help treatment research. Patients who suffer back pain sometimes have difficulty convincing their physicians, relatives, and insurance carriers of their genuine distress. Spinal MRI images do not always clearly demonstrate the source of pain.

According to the lead researcher, a radiologist in Munich, Germany, the objective and reproducible correlates in brain imaging should change the way chronic pain is perceived. It need no longer be a subjective experience. For pain diagnosis and treatment, the consequences could be huge. As a result, clinicians may direct therapeutic attention from the spine to the brain.

Brain Changes Found in Sufferers of Chronic Back Pain

What is unclear is whether the brain in certain individuals is predisposed to developing chronic pain, whether ongoing pain causes hyperactivity and change in the brain’s organization or a combination of both.

Physicians who treat patients with chronic back pain have long known that chronic pain can begin with a serious injury. Even after healing has occurred, the brain continues to send pain signals for these individuals. The new imaging technology DTI will be able to validate their theory that the nervous system has been “rewired.”

This study adds to the growing body of research showing that chronic pain is associated with physical changes in the brain. Chronic is defined as lasting more than six months.

In some cases, back pain plagues individuals for many years after their initial injuries.

This study helps the medical community to understand how the central nervous system is involved in back pain. More research is needed to determine what the brain’s physical changes mean and how to most effectively treat the pain.