Chronic pain is caused by emotion

A new study finds that many people who suffer from chronic pain suffer from their own emotions.

>>>New approach to understanding and controlling chronic pain

According to scientists, the emotional state of the brain can explain why different individuals do not have the same reaction to similar lesions. Some people recover completely while others still suffer from persistent pain.

The brain scan of American scientists for the first time showed how chronic pain appeared as a result of an emotional response to a lesion. This process involves interaction between two regions of the brain: the prefrontal cortex and the adjacent brain region.

Chronic pain like back pain can be caused by feelings of "misery".

The Telegraph quoted Professor Vania Apakarian from Northwestern University in Chicago, USA and the head of the study, saying: 'The injury itself is not enough to explain recurring pain. It must be a combination of injury and brain state '.

The more emotional the brain responds to initial damage, the more likely it is that the pain will persist after the injury has been healed. Professor Apakarian said, this phenomenon may be caused by more prefrontal cortex and adjacent brain regions in some people or due to the genetic and environmental effects that make these two regions of the brain working at an advanced level.

4 brain scans of volunteers for 1 year helped to predict up to 85% of individuals who will develop chronic pain.

The adjacent brain region plays the role of teaching the rest of the brain how to judge and react to the outside world. According to Professor Apakarian, this area can use the initial pain signal to make other parts of the brain develop chronic pain.

The entire study was published in Nature Neuroscience. The authors hope to develop new therapies based on the results of this study.