Chronic pain tagged posts

A “wearable electroceutical” has been developed that could reduce the need to visit a hospital or rely on painkillers every time pain occurs...

Persistent pain often has no clear cause. However, studies show measurable differences in the structure and activity of the brains of those affected. This might explain why they experience chronic pain...

Researchers have a better understanding of the nocebo effect and the neuroscience behind it all. Opposite of the better-known placebo effect, where positive expectations trigger genuine pain relief, the nocebo effect is the experience from negative expectations, created by prior experience, verbal suggestion, or social observation, which can drive anxiety and make pain worse.

A new study published in Nature Communications, by researchers at the University of Toronto Mississauga and McGill University, identified a brain pathway through which negative expectations can amplify pain. The findings, generated independently by the two labs without prior coordination, converged on the neurochemical cholecystokinin (CCK), which has previously been linked to nocebo pain responses in humans.

Scientists may have found the brain’s “pain switch”—and how to turn it off. New research from the University of Colorado Boulder points to a little-known brain circuit that may determine whether short-term pain fades away or becomes a long-lasting problem. The findings suggest that this pathway plays a key role in turning temporary pain into chronic pain that can persist for months or even years.

The study, conducted in animals and published in the Journal of Neuroscience, focused on a region called the caudal granular insular cortex (CGIC). Researchers found that shutting down this circuit can both prevent chronic pain from developing and stop it after it has already begun.

“Our paper used a variety of state-of-the art methods to define the specific brain circuit crucia...