Image: Keith Brofsky age Fotostock
In Brief
- Researchers are pinpointing telltale changes in neurons that underlie persistent pain. In particular, they have documented abnormal excitability among neurons at every level of the body’s pain network.
- Chronic pain is more emotionally fraught than short-lived pain. Changes in brain regions governing feelings and complex thoughts in chronic pain states may help explain some of the unwanted emotional and cognitive problems, from depression to attention deficits, that can sometimes emerge after years of suffering.
- A firmer understanding of the biology of chronic pain could lead to new treatments that would alleviate the debilitating condition in millions of people worldwide.
More In This Article
Imagine you are a doctor treating a patient who has been in nearly constant pain for four years, ever since the day he sprained his ankle stepping off a curb. Physical therapy only briefly dulled the agony. Painkillers were not much better, and the most effective drugs made your patient exhausted and constipated. He is now depressed, sleeping poorly and having difficulty concentrating. As you talk with him, you realize that his thinking also seems impaired. Your exam confirms that the original injury has healed. Only pain and its consequences remain—and your options for helping this man are running out.
This scenario plays out every day in doctors’ offices around the world. Fifteen to 20 percent of adults worldwide suffer from persistent, or chronic, pain. Half the primary care patients who develop a chronic pain condition fail to recover within a year, according to surveys conducted by the World Health Organization. Common causes of such unrelenting discomfort include physical trauma, arthritis, cancer, and metabolic diseases such as diabetes that can damage nerves. In many cases, however, the pain’s origins are mysterious.
This article was originally published with the title When Pain Lingers.
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11 Comments
Add CommentI would not have replied to this page if I hadn't read Carlton22's post. Thanks for the laugh!! :] First there aren't Aristotelian categories to matter, matter is just matter (not water, fire, earth and air), it comes in different phases and forms and depending on it's state it reacts differently. You don't always need to get all metaphysical to answer simple, every-day questions. Instead of transgressing the problems into complex, untestable, meaningless words that need "faith" why not just take all the religion out of what you're saying and you'll see a lot of your explanations are actually contradicting one another. If you have free will, then why don't you have freedom to choose ANYTHING, instead of only being able to choose a set of possible choices depending on the time/place/situation of the choice, which then is determined by previous choices, regressing back to the point of innocent ignorance. Electronic Belt? Shaped like an inverted kettle drum?? You seem to have a lot of answers...but how do you know? You mix ideas of Karma and re-incarnation into the christian faith and try to make it sound like such an interaction can possible exist. Energy that is misqualified?? Either go back to school with an open mind, or keep a closed mind and continue your present course, just don't ramble on about it here.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this- I am not interested in debating religious doctrine. I am interested in the spirit which is our true nature (or at least the spiritual nature of the Christs, the sons and daughters of God, and not that of the Luciferian godless, soulless creation which is not of spirit but of the earth earthy) -
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, that's that then!! NO debate, No open mind, NO acceptance of other views. And verily, in fear of science, in fear of the REVELATION that he is nothingness, existing through ignorance, gap and void, god declared "Thou shall not THINK!" and, pshhh.., like that... he was gone..
what are these comments about,above?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy back hurts. Has for over 20 years. God must have done this to me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't believe in Satan.
Could be five crushed disks, though.
Carlton, do you speak from personal experience with your own chronic pain and its alleviation or are you just using this forum to broadcast religious theories?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow I will address some of your specific comments.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPhac3: First there aren't Aristotelian categories to matter, matter is just matter (not water, fire, earth and air), it comes in different phases and forms and depending on it's state it reacts differently. You don't always need to get all metaphysical to answer simple, every-day questions.
reply: For at least the past 40 years, science has been contemplating the existence of and "l-field" and an "M-field". These equate to the "emotional" and "mental" vehicles respectively. St. Paul talked of bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial; same thing.
Phac3: If you have free will, then why don't you have freedom to choose ANYTHING, instead of only being able to choose a set of possible choices depending on the time/place/situation of the choice, which then is determined by previous choices, regressing back to the point of innocent ignorance.
reply: We are experiencing the RESULT of our free will choices. We are limited as a result of those negative choices we have made. There is nothing innocent about ignorance. Ignorance is a result of ignoring God's Law in making wrong choices. Negative karma (sin) is limiting and burdens the soul and densifies the mental faculties.
Phac3: You mix ideas of Karma and re-incarnation into the christian faith and try to make it sound like such an interaction can possible exist
reply: Jesus taught karma and reincarnation when he healed the man who was born blind and when talking about John the Baptist. The Councils of Trent and Nicea removed much of the original teachings of Jesus. Further redactions were made as it suited the Church hierarchy.
Phac3: Either go back to school with an open mind, or keep a closed mind and continue your present course, just don't ramble on about it here.
reply: May I suggest that you take your own advice.
Reply to Martinius: I think this is a debate. I explained my position on "dogma" and "doctrine" which have limited the understanding of the children of God.
Quinn the Eskimo: My back hurts. Has for over 20 years. God must have done this to me.
reply: God wants only total and complete freedom for his children. Pain teaches us that we have misused God's energy and now we must experience the result. It is a tough lesson to learn. You did it, don't blame God.
herongh: Carlton, do you speak from personal experience with your own chronic pain and its alleviation or are you just using this forum to broadcast religious theories?
reply: YES
Folks, please observe that Carlton's responses are quite consistent with those expected in a delusional (i.e., mentally ill) person. Delusional content can have sensible content, even parts that appear quite advanced conceptually. However, note that his responses are rambling, disjointed, and rigid. This structural aspect of his response (and the common religious content of delusions) is what prompts my observation. Maybe we should give him a break?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree with drscm. Obviously, there is nothing scientific about what Carlton22 is "preaching."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisdrscam: I would hope that in a Scientific forum one would be open to new and exciting possibilities and information that would illumine us as to the Science behind science. Resorting to arrogance and put-downs is childish at best. If you do not understand then ask questions. I do not mind answering as I have demonstrated above.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's increible how God is inside each one of us...After asking God for guidance which I normally do through the Holy Spirit (never lets me down) , I searched for sleeping disorders in this Sci Am web-site and through that search arrived here and read about pain which is related somehow.... I read Carlton's comments and though I can't understand it all and wish I did, its metaphysical nature makes sense to me... I can sometimes sleep well a whole night through but I have my eyes literally closing on me during the day...something I can't control-never had this before...back aches and leg aches as well- emotional pain perhaps? Need of Reiki?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLet us go beyond the BS, if you have pain for a long time you may enter into what is called the circle of pain
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour body will think you have pain when you really don't
It's kind of like losing a leg and still feel its there
In this case find a doctor who will stop the pain inpulses to the brain long enough to stop the pain memory in your mind
My mother went through this and had to have blocks for a long time to retrain her mind
I am not a doctor but my uncle was a pain specialist, MD and was shocked at what worked even tho medical science did not agree with items out of their teaching.
Faith healing only lasts for at most 2 years, so don't get carried away.
Use the best medical care you can. Don't beleive in BS
Have a good day If you want to know anything else my e-mail
is starmaga@aol.com