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Fadel Zeidan, PhD (UC San Diego Health Sciences\/Kyle Dykes)<\/p>\n
\u201cIn every pain study, when you’re experiencing pain, the DMN deactivates,\u201d said Zeidan. \u201cWhat we show for the first time ever is that when you have a pain flare, it turns on instead. You start to identify the experience with who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
In essence, in cLBP the brain is maladaptively coupling the physical pain with a deep, internal sense of self.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moment-to-moment experience is contaminated not only by the feeling of pain, but by the anticipation of it and recovery from it. It\u2019s contaminated by past experiences like embarrassment about not being able to participate in normal activities and fear of movement when trying to avoid the pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers think that because pain flares evoked by movement in cLBP patients activate different brain networks than typical acute pain, this might be why standard pain treatments like opiates often fail for this type of pain.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrent pain medicine is fixated on ridding patients of their pain symptoms, but that’s not the source of chronic pain. These data suggest that a chronic pain flare also encompasses one\u2019s identity.”<\/p>\n
Recent research by Zeidan\u2019s team points to a different route to treatment by using mindfulness meditation<\/a> and the psychedelic compound psilocybin<\/a>, helping patients separate the physical experience of chronic pain from their identity, resulting in reductions to pain intensity. These preliminary findings are promising, but more research is needed to validate these early studies.<\/p>\n \u201cThese types of mind-body and psychedelic medicine approaches target the whole person,\u201d Zeidan said. \u201cMindfulness is a meditation technique that’s about cultivating non-judgmental awareness of the present moment that dramatically reduces pain in a very unique way. Psilocybin seemingly resets the pain system that integrates trauma, past experiences and future worries to facilitate a restart, if you will. They\u2019re not a silver bullet \u2014 you’re not necessarily getting rid of the pain, but you’re changing the relationship you have with that pain so it doesn’t contaminate your everyday life.”<\/p>\n Zeidan\u2019s lab is currently conducting several neuroimaging-based clinical trials to further understand how approaches that target self-referential brain processes like mindfulness meditation and psychedelics\u00a0 can rewire the brain to alter the subjective experience of chronic pain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read the full study: \u201cBrain mechanisms supporting movement-evoked chronic low back pain<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n Additional co-authors on the study include: Morgan Gianola, Jon Dean, Conan Chen, Daniel Barrows, Gabriel Reigner and Thomas Liu at UC San Diego School of Medicine.<\/p>\n The study was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health\u2019s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (Grant #R01AT009693) and the UC San Diego Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n Read more news about: School of Medicine<\/a>, <\/p>\n