The Brain in Chronic Pain: Clinical Implications

Abstract

SUMMARY This article examines the present, and potential future, impact of brain imaging on chronic pain. It is argued that novel theories of chronic pain are coming to the fore, specifically through brain imaging of the human brain in chronic pain. Such studies show that the brain reorganizes in relation to chronic pain, in a pattern specific to the type of clinical pain, and that brain networks and receptor targets are being identified and reverse translated to animal studies of their efficacy and mechanisms. Future studies need to integrate across human brain imaging techniques, as well as more intensive reverse translational methods.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the students, postdoctoral fellows, and collaborating colleagues for actually performing the experiments and for providing the means with which thinking about pain can move forward. Also, I would like to thank all subjects and patients who have provided time and effort in the described studies.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

These studies were funded by NIH NINDS R01 NS35115, NS53602 and NS57704. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

These studies were funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) R01 NS35115, NS53602 and NS57704. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.