Chronic pain is a costly condition in the United States.
Affecting one in four adults, its annual tab is estimated to be more than $722 billon paid in a combination of medical bills and lost work time.
A new study, however, might hold hope for a future with a little less chronic pain, which is generally defined as pain lasting longer than three to six months.
University of Colorado scientists found that a sugar-cube-sized region of the brain holds a small command center that tells the body to keep pain signals alive well after an injury has healed. The region is tucked inside the insula [in-suh-luh], a part of the brain that helps us process sensations.
In laboratory studies, shutting down that brain circuit not only prevented chronic pain, but also turned it off after the pain began.
For the new research, scientists used fluorescent proteins to track which nerve cells activated in rats after a sciatic nerve injury. Then, they used advanced neuroscience tools to flip genes on or off.
The results showed that the region of the brain responsible for chronic pain is likely key to pain that lingers over time.
When the scientists turned off this pathway shortly after injury, pain was brief. Once chronic pain developed, disabling the circuit caused pain to let up.
Researchers don’t know why the brain sometimes sends bogus pain signals. But they envision a future of targeted injections or infusions that stop the false alarms. Perhaps a wearable device. Or an implant.
Now that technology allows scientists to target specific parts of the brain, they say new treatments are likely to come much faster.