Recent advances in pain research: implications for chronic headache.
Within the last 2 decades there has been an explosion in new information on mechanisms underlying pain. Unfortunately this information has not resulted in a similar improvement of our handling of patients with chronic pain including chronic musculoskeletal pain. Neuronal hyperexcitability, which apparently is a key phenomenon in many (if not all) types of chronic pain results in changes in the nervous system from the level of the peripheral nociceptor to the highest cortical centers in the brain. The neuronal plastic changes in chronic pain conditions makes the nociceptive system amenable for treatment with several traditional as well as nontraditional types of interventions. Two treatment areas that seem worth exploring within chronic pain including headache concerns preventive measures and endogenous pain modulation.
Jensen
T S
TS
Department of Neurology and Danish Pain Research Center, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
D000818:Animals; D020773:Headache Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology