Strong emotions cause chronic pain

Chronic pain is more related to the emotional background than to other factors, American scientists have found. Emotions are why some are predisposed to developing chronic pain due to injury.

The results of brain scans of a group of 40 volunteers (all of whom had back pain for 1-4 months) showed that pain occurs as a result of an emotional reaction to injury. This process affects two areas of the brain - the frontal lobe of the cortex and the nucleus accumbens.

Study leader Professor Ivan Apakarian from Northwestern University in Chicago states: “The more emotionally the brain reacts to an injury, the more likely it is that pain will remain even after the injury itself has healed. It is possible that certain areas of the brain are initially overactive in people with chronic pain ".

Thus, the scan can predict the development of pain with 85% accuracy. The nuclei accumbens “teach” the brain how to evaluate and respond to phenomena in the external world. Perhaps it is the nuclei that set the overall tone, which leads to chronic pain.

Source: meddaily.ru