Stress Management Helps Prevent Chronic Pain

A latest study finds a strong association between stress and pain. The study suggests that for chronic pain sufferers who have suffered an accident or illness, avoiding the harmful effects of stress will help in managing their condition.

The study was conducted by  Dr. Pierre Rainville, PhD in Neuropsychology, researcher at the Research Centre of the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (IUGM) and professor in the Faculty of Dentistry at Universite de Montreal, in collaboration with Etienne Vachon-Presseau, a Ph.D student in Neuropsychology. 

People with a smaller hippocampus are more vulnerable to stress and this study emphasizes the need for stress management.

"Cortisol, a hormone produced by the adrenal glands, is sometimes called the 'stress hormone' as it is activated in reaction to stress. Our study shows that a small hippocampal volume is associated with higher cortisol levels, which lead to increased vulnerability to pain and could increase the risk of developing pain chronicity," Etienne Vachon-Presseau said in a press statement.

The study was conducted on 16 patients who are sufferers of chronic back pain. They had a control group of 18 healthy subjects. Through this study, the researchers wanted to examine the links between cortisol levels, clinical pain before brain scan, hippocampal volume and brain activations.

The cortisol levels were determined with samples of saliva, with the help of anatomical magnetic resonance imaging they calculated the hippocampal volume, functional MRI helped them assess brain activations.

They noticed that those patients with smaller hippocampus had higher levels of cortisol and responded strongly to acute pain in a brain region that involved anticipatory anxiety. How the brain responded to the painful procedure during the scan showed the intensity of the patient's clinical pain condition.

This study suggests that those with a smaller hippocampus develop a stronger stress response which thereby increases pain and the risk of developing chronic pain.

Stress management should be considered as a helpful treatment by chronic pain sufferers.

The study was published in the journal Brain.