Chronic Pain and Brain Abnormalities

The only reference on the market to adequately explore long-term changes in the brain resulting from chronic pain

Carl Y. Saab (Author)

9780123983893, Elsevier Science

Hardback, published 28 August 2013

176 pages
22.9 x 15.1 x 1.9 cm, 0.45 kg

"For pain practitioners, clinicians, scientists, therapists, and biomedical engineers, Saab…compiles five chapters that examine chronic pain-related brain abnormalities, their neurophysiological mechanisms, and neurotechnological and theoretical tools used to study them." --Reference & Research Book News, December 2013

It is only natural for someone in pain to attend to the body part that hurts. Yet this book tells the story of persistent pain having negative effects on brain function. The contributors, all leading experts in their respective fields of pain electrophysiology, brain imaging, and animal models of pain, strive to synthesize compelling and, in some ways, connected hypotheses with regard to pain-related changes in the brain. Together, they contribute their clinical, academic, and theoretical expertise in a comprehensive overview that attempts to define the broader philosophical context of pain (disentangling sensical from nonsensical claims), list the changes known to take place in the brains of individuals with chronic pain and animal models of pain, address the possible causes and mechanisms underlying these changes, and detail the techniques and analytical methods at our disposal to "visualize" and study these changes.

1. Introduction2. Morphological Evidence for Pain-Related Brain Changes: Imaging3. Thalamic and Cortical Irregular Firing in Pain Patients4. Aberrant Pain-Related Rhythms in the Brain5. Surgical Brain Interventions for Pain6. Supraspinal Sensitization in Pre-Clinical Animal Models of Pain7. Future Directions

Subject Areas: Pain & pain management [MMBP], Neurology & clinical neurophysiology [MJN]