title: Losses and gains: chronic pain and altered brain morphology.
abstract: As in many fields of neuroscience, alterations in brain morphology, and specifically gray matter volume and cortical thickness, have been repeatedly linked to chronic pain disorders. Numerous studies have shown changes in cortical and subcortical brain regions suggesting a dynamic process that may be a result of chronic pain or contributing to a more generalized phenomenon in chronic pain including comorbid anxiety and depression. In this review, we provide a perspective of pain as an innate state of pain based on alterations in structure and by inference, brain function. A better neurobiological understanding of gray matter changes will contribute to our understanding of how structural changes contribute to chronic pain (disease driver) and how these changes may be reversed (disease modification or treatment).
authors.affiliation: Center for Pain and the Brain, P.A.I.N. Group, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, c/o 9 Hope Avenue, Waltham, MA, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Borsook
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Erpelding
authors.forename: Lino
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Becerra
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*