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New Study shows That Chronic Pain Interferes With Brain Activity

A new study shows that chronic pain interferes with normal brain activity more so than what was previously thought.  The study suggests that chronic pain alters brain function in the same way as disorders involving cognitive impairment, the researchers said.

The researchers enrolled 15 healthy people and 15 patients with back pain of 6.3 years mean duration. Brain activity was monitored with functional MRI scans at baseline and while the participants performed a simple target-tracking task.

Dante R. Chialvo, M.D., of Northwestern University, published the study in the recent issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Dr. Chialvo said, "These findings suggest that the brain of a chronic pain patient is not simply a healthy brain processing pain information, but rather is altered by the persistent pain in a manner reminiscent of other neurological conditions associated with cognitive impairments."

You can read more about the study here.  An abstract of the study can be found here.