Chronic Back Pain Shrinks Brain
(HealthDayNews, 11/22/04)

A Vania Apkarian of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and colleagues, compared magnetic resonance imaging brain scans from 26 subjects who had chronic lower back pain with those from painfree subjects. In earlier research, Apkarian’s team had linked constant back pain for at least six months to abnormal brain chemistry. Now the researchers have found that the brain also atrophies, shrinking by as much as 11 %. Apkarian theorizes that, since chronic pain represents a state of persistent negative perception, the grey matter may shrink as a result of “overuse atrophy caused by excitotoxic and inflammatory mechanisms." Whether the condition is reversible depends on whether or not it involves the actual loss of neurons.

(Journal of Neuroscience, Nov. 23, 2004).