Chronic pain may change the structure of the brain

In the past decade of pain research, a network of pain transmitting areas within the CNS has been established, based on both animal studies and findings from functional imaging studies in humans. Consequently, the neurobiology of pain is increasingly understood as an integration of activity in distinct neuronal structures. Evidence of altered local brain chemistry and functional reorganization in chronic back pain patients supports the idea that chronic pain could be understood not only as an altered functional state, but also as a consequence of central plasticity. Recently, local morphologic alterations of the…