#neuropathic pain
Neuroimaging study reveals potential brain mechanism underlying chronic neuropathic pain in individuals with HIV
As medical advances help individuals with HIV survive longer, there is an increasing need to treat their chronic symptoms. One of the most common is neuropathic pain, or pain caused by damage to the nervous system.
Distal sensory polyneuropathy (DSP) is the most prevalent neurological problem in HIV infection, affecting 50 percent of all HIV patients. Most persons with DSP describe sensations of numbness, tingling, burning and stinging in their hands or feet, which impair daily functioning and can lead to unemployment and depression.
Previous research on DSP has mostly focused on the peripheral nervous system, but nerve injury cannot fully explain the wide variability in DSP symptoms. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and University of California San Francisco instead looked at the brain to see how it may be contributing to patients’ pain.
In a new study, published online October 29, 2021 in Brain Communications, the team observed unique patterns of brain activity in HIV-DSP patients when they experienced a painful stimulus. Compared to other patients with HIV, those with DSP showed increased activity in the anterior insula, a brain area involved in predicting and emotionally processing pain.
“The anterior insula is trying to predict the future for you,” said senior author Alan Simmons, PhD, professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine and research scientist at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System. “It’s forming expectations about what is about to happen to you and how you’re going to feel. These expectations of pain play an important role in determining how much pain you then actually experience.”
Pictured: HIV patients with and without chronic neuropathic pain received short or long heat stimuli on their hands (control site) or feet (neuropathic site).
“Not So Great Expectations: Pain in HIV Related to Brain’s Expectations of Relief”
Empathy understanding for people with chronic illness.
“If a friend only sends an emoji as a response they are not being rude, they’re exhausted… Understand…if I’m not keeping in touch, or don’t always reply…it’s not because I don’t want to or don’t care. Sometimes I just can’t.”
Chronic pain problems •
Mental health matters ;
“There are hundreds of us struggling like this, and as a result, the best thing is our understanding of each other… Speak up—because the likelihood is that there is someone out there struggling just as much as you.”
Chronic pain problems •
I love this ! #Warriors !
Chronic pain problems •
My life in nutshell.
Chronic pain problems •
My pain chart comes in 3….
- Tolerable
- Intolerable
- Shoot me .
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There’s more than just the pain that people don’t see.
I made a huge to do list today . I just can’t figure out who’s going to do it .
Chronic pain problems •
