Chronic pain may damage brain

[LibLabUK]

Chronic pain may permanently shrink the brain, US researchers believe.
The Northwestern University team had previously shown patients with back pain had decreased activity in the same brain region called the thalamus.

This area is known to be important in decision-making and social behaviour.

The team's current study in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests some of the changes may be irreversible and render pain treatment ineffective. More research is needed, they say.

Shrinkage

If true, it makes it all the more important to treat pain early to prevent any permanent change, say Dr Vania Apkarian and colleagues.

They scanned the brains of 26 patients with chronic back pain and 26 healthy people.

The patients with chronic pain caused by damage to the nervous system showed shrinks in the brain by as much as 11% - equivalent to the amount of gray matter that is lost in 10-20 years of normal aging.

Source:BBC News Online

[LosinIt]

1. Gee, and I thought it was just menopause, now it's my migraines

I've had them, bad ones, since I was 3 so my mother tells me.

[LibLabUK]

2. Hmm..

I don't think migraines are the same thing as chronic persistant pain.

This is more to do with people who have suffered some injury, typically a back injury, the pain from which persists and is difficult to relieve.

Migraines are really acute pain, which although this can be difficult to relieve, they are usually transitory.

[Francesca]

3. Yikes me too, since I was 6 however

around the age of 20 they slowed down however, and now I can go up to 5 weeks without having one.. occasionally have a bad spell but the worst happened for the first 10 years..and of course I am sure you were told like my mother was "children don't get migraines" My mother suffered just as much as I did..she had no support and I did not start getting meds till I was a teenager... I hate doctors with a passion to this day....wow touchy subject..

[Dear Maggie]

7. Even children can have HORRIBLE headaches

I think that a cause of it could be exposure to the 2-butoxyethanol chemical (n-butyl ether in ethylene glycol)

I have heard of several with this. A lady who died 2 months ago in our town told me that as a little child she was often taken to the emergency room of the hospital with horrible headaches. She ended up having the 'pattern' of this chemical's harm; and I suspect that since her mother died of kidney cancer somewhere along the line, that her mother could have passed on some of the same chemical effects.

She had a grandson die as a baby. I don't know the whole story there; but this chemical is a teratogen ... and it harms children, too

Right now I know of a boy about 7 who is always having headaches. He told me they are in the front of his head (Most times I hear people with these kind of headaches share that they are at the side or back of the head. I also know that his mother had a cough that wouldn't quit a couple of years ago which I attribute to the work she does in professional cleaning (& painting) I am very concerned about him. www.valdezlink.com/complete.htm#HEADACHES

I could go on and on; but if this 2-butoxyethanol that is in paint and cleaning products is the cause, there would underly a fatigue which is premature destruction of the red blood cells. Test for autoimmune hemolytic anemia & insist on it. Doctors see all is OK in the first blood info & they quit. They must look further.

What is the size and the shape of the red blood cells, etc www.valdezlink.com/rbc_size_shape.htm

At what rate are you making new red blood cells? retic rate www.valdezlink.com/check_blood.htm#retic

I call what this chemical does: CFS, 'gulf war syndrome' CFIDS www.valdezlink.com/cfid_share.htm

What are the 7 wonders of the world? http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=214&topic_id=3088&mesg_id=3500

[indigobusiness]

4. And I thought my stupidity was painful...

Now I find the reverse is also true.

They got me coming and going.

I can't win.

[Freebird12004]

5. I thought I was too young

I've had chronic pain since 1979 ... no wonder I'm losing it!

[atommom]

6. My worst "chronic pain" is the Bush administration. I hope I still

have a few brain cells left in 2008...