The link between brain inflammation as a result of chronic pain and depression

University has been pretty full on in my second year, and as a result the consistency of my blogs have become some what hindered. However! I have officially finished my second year now and completed all my academically testing - soul destroying - brain breaking tasks... otherwise know as "exams". I get my results in July and hope to God that the work has paid off.

Anyways that is enough on me, lets get onto looking at the main focus of this blog which is the link between chronic pain (causing brain inflammation), depression,  and anxiety.



A 5 year study conducted by Catherine Cahill and colleagues have found an association between those suffering chronic pain and depression. People may think that this is "obvious" but it is not until now that a biopysical link has been ascertained through the use of careful experimental design. Second to bipolar, chronic pain sufferers are much more likely to attempt illness related suicide - it has been found that around a quarter of Americans suffer chronic pain and as a result costs society a shocking $635 billion per year. Considering this exponential sum I highly doubt big pharma are complaining in the slightest.

So we have identified this link but what does this all mean on a cellular level? Well what was found is that brain inflammation is a byproduct of chronic pain, causing increased growth and activation in cells known as "microglia" -  microglia is a form of glia which along side neurons make up the brain and spinal cord acting as front-line defense within the central nervous system  (but lets not get into that). Now the main job of microglia is to act as a residential clean up service which helps to evict and extinguish any infectious agents and to also seek out damaged neurons. However these cells also trigger chemical signalling throughout neurons that inhibits the release of dopamine (which is otherwise known as the go to neurotransmitter for pleasure seeking) thus increasing the risk of depression (if you would like to know more on microglia then follow the link at the end of the blog)

In an attempt at countering this lack of dopamine response, the use of morphine was suggested which is renowned for its dopamine boosting properties. Unfortunately it was discovered that it made no difference in chronic pain sufferers showing that the consistent production of microglia can in-turn prove to be more influential than the likes of morphine which is used worldwide as a way of decreasing serious pain.

Due to the failure in the use of dopamine increasing drugs another approach was taken. This consisted of the use of microglia activation inhibitors, and as hoped this proved to be successful.

Afterthoughts 

Now this study is important for one of two reasons. The first is that for over 20 years a connection like this was always researched and never discovered until now - having this insight allows us to further increase our understanding of the brain, and with this understanding comes our ability to better preserve it, which is where the second reason comes in. So not only has this link been made, a beneficial strategy has also been contrived in the hopes of preventing depressive symptoms from the result of chronic pain.

With time this type of research will become more advanced hopefully coming up with ways to completely eradicate the burden that is chronic pain.

If you would like to read the original article on this then visit:   http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150609213337.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28Latest+Science+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

For more information on glia visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microglia