Health Editor’s Note: Many live with pain and run the risk of becoming addicted to narcotic pain killers if they need pain relief for any length of time. If pain could be relieved by a non-narcotic means, that would be a win/win situation…..Carol
Scientists find new pain-suppression center in the brain
At a Glance
- Scientists identified a group of neurons in mice that blunt pain by dampening the activity of multiple pain-processing regions of the brain.
- The neurons could be promising targets for new non-addictive therapies for chronic pain.
More than 50 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, and many are prescribed opioid medications as treatment. But the benefits of long-term opioid treatment for chronic pain are unclear, and patients risk developing drug tolerance (needing higher doses) and hyperalgesia (increased pain sensitivity). Use of these medications may also lead to dependence or even addiction. Scientists are searching for more effective, non-addictive treatments for chronic pain.
Toward this goal, a research team led by Dr. Fan Wang of Duke University set out to find brain regions in mice that might be new targets for non-opioid pain interventions. The research was funded in part by NIH’s National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) as part of NIH’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative. Results appeared on May 18, 2020, in Nature Neuroscience.
Wang took a counterintuitive approach to find a pain-relief center. Most previous studies focused on finding regions that are activated by pain. Instead, Wang’s team looked for regions that are activated by surgical anesthetics such as ketamine and isoflurane, which block pain and promote aspects of sleep. ….read more:
Carol graduated from Riverside White Cross School of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio and received her diploma as a registered nurse. She attended Bowling Green State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Literature. She attended the University of Toledo, College of Nursing, and received a Master’s of Nursing Science Degree as an Educator.
She has traveled extensively, is a photographer, and writes on medical issues. Carol has three children RJ, Katherine, and Stephen – one daughter-in-law; Katie – two granddaughters; Isabella Marianna and Zoe Olivia – and one grandson, Alexander Paul. She also shares her life with her husband Gordon Duff, many cats, and two rescues.
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Prolonged dampening of this neuron collection could initiate modulation of the synaptic gaps involved in reporting the sensory input …which would be experienced as heightened pain sensitivity…only in the case of biological damage sustained during the dampened time period he noted handsomely..heh.
Great article Carol…Here was an interesting part of it..”Silencing the neurons caused mice to react to non-painful touch as if it was painful”…I suspect that this response is a default for information processing when no correlation is available (the default being treat the unknown..or naive experience as “dangerous”)…because of the dampening of this neuron bundle for the test…it is located in the amygdala because the amygdala acts as a nexus of multiple sensory inputs..and sits on the brain stem for rapid processing…it all makes sense from a neurological systems perspective…I imagine though that sustaining injury during dampening…when other feedback loops are employed will lead to a heightening of pain sensitivity prompted by the nucleus accumbens as an attempt to ratchet up the data input….but used appropriately could be a great remedy.
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