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The circuit basis for chronic pain and its comorbidities
1King's College London, Wolfson Centre for Age Related Diseases, Guy's Campus, Newcomen Street, London, UK.
Current Opinion in Supportive and Palliative Care
|April 25, 2023
Summary
Chronic pain often co-occurs with mood disorders like anxiety and depression due to shared neurobiology. Understanding these pain-mood circuit connections is key for better treatment outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Pain Medicine
Background:
- Chronic pain frequently co-occurs with mood disorders, leading to poorer treatment outcomes.
- Shared neurobiological pathways link pain and anxiodepressive disorders, creating a cycle of mutual reinforcement.
- This review focuses on the circuit basis of these comorbidities.
Approach:
- Utilizes modern viral tracing tools for precise circuit manipulation.
- Employs optogenetics and chemogenetics to investigate underlying mechanisms.
- Examines critical ascending and descending circuits involved in pain and mood.
Key Points:
- Reveals interconnected pathways modulating pain's sensory and emotional dimensions.
- Highlights how comorbid pain and mood disorders induce circuit-specific maladaptive plasticity.
- Advances understanding of the long-term emotional consequences of chronic pain.
Conclusions:
- Translational research requires addressing preclinical model validity and endpoint translatability.
- Future therapeutic potential can be maximized by expanding analysis to molecular and system levels.
- Further investigation into circuit-specific plasticity is crucial for effective interventions.
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