Study Confirms Brain’s Natural Painkiller

[Guest guest]

This article mentions Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome and

temporo-mandibular joint disorder. But deals with the issue of pain which most

of us have. ~>Becky M.

http://www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm?ID=3070

Study Confirms Brain’s Natural Painkiller System ImmuneSupport.com

07-25-2001

A unique experiment that studied chemical activity in the brains of human

volunteers while they experienced sustained pain is providing new insight into

the importance of the body's natural painkiller system and why each of us

experiences pain differently. The results were published in the July 13 issue of

Science magazine.

The study results confirm long-suspected connections between pain-dampening

changes in brain chemistry, and the senses and emotions experienced by people in

pain. The findings may help researchers better understand prolonged pain and

find more effective ways to treat the chronic pain of several conditions,

including fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

" This result gives us new appreciation for the power of our brain's own

anti-pain system, and shows how brain chemistry regulates sensory and emotional

experiences, " said lead author Jon-Kar Zubieta, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor

of psychiatry and radiology at the U-M Medical School, and assistant research

scientist in the Mental Health Research Institute.

The double-blind, placebo-controlled, brain imaging study, was conducted by

researchers from the University of Michigan Health System and School of

Dentistry. It is the first to combine sustained induced pain with simultaneous

brain-scan monitoring of a key neurochemical system, and the self-reported pain

ratings of human participants.

The research cements the critical role of the mu opioid system, in which

naturally produced chemicals called endogenous opioids, or endorphins, match up

with receptors on the surface of brain cells and reduce or block the spread of

pain messages from the body through the brain.

The body-brain pain connection occurs on many levels. As our bodies respond to

the sensation of pain, our brains integrate that sensation with our knowledge of

the environment in which it occurs. Then the brain produces the endogenous

opiods that lessen our perception of painful nerve signals, protecting us from

fully feeling them. The way the chemicals produce this effect is similar to the

action of some pain medications.

The study found that the onset and slow increase of jaw muscle pain over 20

minutes caused a surge in the release of the chemicals, and that the flood of

those chemicals coincided with a reduction in the amount of pain and

pain-related emotions the volunteers said they felt.

Instead of looking at the general activity of the brain, the researchers set out

to watch the response of the chemical systems involved in suppressing the

experience of pain - namely, the opioid system - and to relate its function to

the volunteers' subjective reports of what they felt.

The researchers chose first to study prolonged jaw pain, mimicking the chronic

condition called temporo-mandibular joint disorder. To simulate TMJ's symptoms,

they injected high-concentration salt water directly into each volunteer's jaw

muscle, causing a painful sensation that continued only as long as the water was

injected. A placebo solution that does not cause pain was also used for

comparison.

The regions most significantly affected were exactly those involved in the

affective, or emotional, responses, and those primarily involved in processing

sensations.

The activation of the anti-pain response was dramatic in some volunteers when

the placebo and pain-inducing conditions were compared, while in others the

response was much less pronounced. And those who had the biggest change tended

to rate the experience of pain, both in its sensory and emotional aspects, the

lowest.

" This may help explain why some people are more sensitive, or less sensitive,

than others when it comes to painful sensations, " Zubieta said. " We show that

people vary both in the number of receptors that they have for these anti-pain

brain chemicals, and in their ability to release the anti-pain chemicals

themselves. Both of these factors appear to determine the emotional and sensory

aspects of a painful experience.”

“Such variability in the pain-response system may help explain why some people

react to pain and pain medications differently. It may also be quite relevant to

why some people, but not others, develop chronic pain conditions. " Zubieta said.

The researchers now hope their findings will lead to more understanding of

chronic pain and ways to treat it. Also important is the information gathered on

variation among individuals' pain response, which may help clinicians tailor

treatment or learn why certain chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia are

more common in women.

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