Preliminary study results suggest that people suffering from chronic back pain may also experience shrinkage in the “thinking” part of their brain. There are two types of brain matter: white matter and gray matter. Gray matter contains active “thinking cells” that are vital for processing information and memory, whereas white matter is more structural and is basically there to hold the brain together. Dr A Vania Apkarian of Northwestern University in Chicago and colleagues found that people with chronic back pain had less gray matter overall. As well as having less gray matter volume-wise, that present was also less dense in those with chronic back pain. However, the researchers do not know which comes first – the pain or the shrinkage. One way of determining this would be to follow a group of chronic pain sufferers to see if the changes in gray mater continue. If so, this would suggest that chronic pain causes the shrinkage. If this turns out to be true, “the urgency to cure chronic pain becomes more important,” says Apkarian.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.reutershealth.com on the 21st March 2003
