Neuroplasticity and Chronic Pain Management
Neuroplasticity (variously referred to as brain plasticity or cortical plasticity or cortical re-mapping) refers to the changes that occur in the organization of the brain as a result of learning and experience. A surprising consequence of neuroplasticity is that the brain activity associated with a given function can move to a different location as a consequence of normal experience or brain damage/recovery. In the case of chronic pain management this can mean that pain signals keep occurring despite lack of a trigger or tissue damage.
According to research published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (2001) titled Spinal Cord Neuroplasticity following Repeated Opioid Exposure and Its Relation to Pathological Pain; convincing evidence has accumulated that indicates there are neuroplastic changes within the spinal cord in response to repeated exposure to opioids. Such neuroplastic changes occur at both cellular and intracellular levels.
Unfortunately, most pain conditions in this country are treated with opiates—some research shows as high as 90 percent of people undergoing chronic pain management are prescribed opiates. With so many people living with chronic pain and using opiates, these neuroplastic changes need to be better understood.
I like to use simple language and metaphors or visual images when educating my patients. Many people may not understand the term Neuroplasticity so I use the metaphor of the hijacked brain. I tell them the reality of neuroplasticity science is much more complex, but in essence what happens is that the brain forms pathways (called neuro-networks) that eventually become super highways—in other words the new neuro-network becomes more complex and elaborate.
What I believe needs to happen in chronic pain management is new pathways or highways need to be developed. My friend and colleague Terry Gorski uses the example of living in a rural area with an outhouse over a hundred yards from the back door. Between the back door and the outhouse is a field of heavy vegetation that is very hard to walk through. On the first trip it takes a long time and is very difficult but some of the vegetation is getting tramped down just a little so the trip back is not quite as hard. After several trips it gets much easier.
I expand this metaphor by saying treatment is like gaining access to landscaping equipment that will assist you in putting in a paved path to your goal—effective pain management. It is crucial to develop new ways of thinking, more effective methods of managing painful emotions and new ways of behaving that will improve pain management and quality of life.
To do this, new neuro-pathways need to be generated and used over and over until the highway is built. Unfortunately, people can be detoured back to the old highways in many different ways. One of the insidious detours is, that the deeper the trance goes the less obvious it becomes. In fact, our inner saboteur often surfaces at this point and our problems can get even worse.
To learn more about neuroplasticity and chronic pain management check out my article Chronic Pain Management and the Hijacked Brain , that you can download for free on our Ariticles page. You can also check out a 2008 News and Research report on our website by going to 2008 Archive , and scrolling down to the post titled The Role of Neuroplasticity in Chronic Pain Management.
You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you or a loved one is undergoing chronic pain management, especially if you’re in recovery or believe you may have a medication or other mental health problem and you want to learn more effective chronic pain management tools, please go to our Publications page and check out my books; especially the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Recovery Guide: Managing Pain and Medication in Recovery. To purchase this book please Click Here.
To read the latest issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.
To learn about my upcoming trainings you can check out our Calendar page. To listen to a radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to this interview.
