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Alterations in cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity in chronic pain patients
Bruno J Urban1, Randal D France, Garth Bissette
1Department of Anesthesiology Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710 U.S.A. Department of Psychiatry Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710 U.S.A. Department of Pharmacology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710 U.S.A. Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 U.S.A.
Abstract:
Concentrations of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity in cerebrospinal fluid were significantly reduced in chronic pain patients compared to control patients without chronic pain. This difference was not influenced by demographic or clinical characteristics. Somatostatin has been shown to be a neurotransmitter in animal nociception; pharmacologic doses of this substance have moderated human pain. Our findings provide evidence that somatostatin may be involved in the pathogenesis of the chronic pain state.