79 research outputs found
Irritable Bowel Syndrome : Studies of central pathophysiological mechanisms and effects of treatment
Could Stress Contribute to Pain-Related Fear in Chronic Pain?
Learning to predict pain based on internal or external cues constitutes a fundamental and highly adaptive process aimed at self-protection. Pain-related fear is an essential component of this response, which is formed by associative and instrumental learning processes. In chronic pain, pain-related fear may become maladaptive, drive avoidance behaviors and contribute to symptom chronicity. Pavlovian fear conditioning has proven fruitful to elucidate associative learning and extinction involving aversive stimuli, including pain, but studies in chronic pain remain scarce. Stress demonstrably exerts differential effects on emotional learning and memory processes, but this has not been transferred to pain-related fear. Within this perspective, we propose that stress could contribute to impaired pain-related associative learning and extinction processes and call for interdisciplinary research. Specifically, we suggest to test the hypotheses that (1) extinction-related phenomena inducing a re-activation of maladaptive pain-related fear (e.g., reinstatement, renewal) likely occur in everyday life of chronic pain patients and may alter pain processing, impair perceptual discrimination and favour overgeneralization; (2) acute stress prior to or during acquisition of pain-related fear may facilitate the formation and/or consolidation of pain-related fear memories, (3) stress during or after extinction may impair extinction efficacy resulting in greater reinstatement or context-dependent renewal of pain-related fear; and (4) these effects could be amplified by chronic stress due to early adversity and/or psychiatric comorbidity such as depression or anxiety in patients with chronic pain
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Role of brain imaging in disorders of brain-gut interaction: a Rome Working Team Report.
Imaging of the living human brain is a powerful tool to probe the interactions between brain, gut and microbiome in health and in disorders of brain-gut interactions, in particular IBS. While altered signals from the viscera contribute to clinical symptoms, the brain integrates these interoceptive signals with emotional, cognitive and memory related inputs in a non-linear fashion to produce symptoms. Tremendous progress has occurred in the development of new imaging techniques that look at structural, functional and metabolic properties of brain regions and networks. Standardisation in image acquisition and advances in computational approaches has made it possible to study large data sets of imaging studies, identify network properties and integrate them with non-imaging data. These approaches are beginning to generate brain signatures in IBS that share some features with those obtained in other often overlapping chronic pain disorders such as urological pelvic pain syndromes and vulvodynia, suggesting shared mechanisms. Despite this progress, the identification of preclinical vulnerability factors and outcome predictors has been slow. To overcome current obstacles, the creation of consortia and the generation of standardised multisite repositories for brain imaging and metadata from multisite studies are required
Alterations in prefrontal-limbic functional activation and connectivity in chronic stress-induced visceral hyperalgesia.
Repeated water avoidance stress (WAS) induces sustained visceral hyperalgesia (VH) in rats measured as enhanced visceromotor response to colorectal distension (CRD). This model incorporates two characteristic features of human irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), VH and a prominent role of stress in the onset and exacerbation of IBS symptoms. Little is known regarding central mechanisms underlying the stress-induced VH. Here, we applied an autoradiographic perfusion method to map regional and network-level neural correlates of VH. Adult male rats were exposed to WAS or sham treatment for 1 hour/day for 10 days. The visceromotor response was measured before and after the treatment. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) mapping was performed by intravenous injection of radiotracer ([(14)C]-iodoantipyrine) while the rat was receiving a 60-mmHg CRD or no distension. Regional CBF-related tissue radioactivity was quantified in autoradiographic images of brain slices and analyzed in 3-dimensionally reconstructed brains with statistical parametric mapping. Compared to sham rats, stressed rats showed VH in association with greater CRD-evoked activation in the insular cortex, amygdala, and hypothalamus, but reduced activation in the prelimbic area (PrL) of prefrontal cortex. We constrained results of seed correlation analysis by known structural connectivity of the PrL to generate structurally linked functional connectivity (SLFC) of the PrL. Dramatic differences in the SLFC of PrL were noted between stressed and sham rats under distension. In particular, sham rats showed negative correlation between the PrL and amygdala, which was absent in stressed rats. The altered pattern of functional brain activation is in general agreement with that observed in IBS patients in human brain imaging studies, providing further support for the face and construct validity of the WAS model for IBS. The absence of prefrontal cortex-amygdala anticorrelation in stressed rats is consistent with the notion that impaired corticolimbic modulation acts as a central mechanism underlying stress-induced VH
The relationship between irritable bowel syndrome and psychiatric disorders: from molecular changes to clinical manifestations
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional syndrome characterized by chronic abdominal pain accompanied by altered bowel habits. Although generally considered a functional disorder, there is now substantial evidence that IBS is associated with a poor quality of life and significant negative impact on work and social domains. Neuroimaging studies documented changes in the prefrontal cortex, ventro-lateral and posterior parietal cortex and thalami, and implicate alteration of brain circuits involved in attention, emotion and pain modulation. Emerging data reveals the interaction between psychiatric disorders including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia and IBS, which suggests that this association should not be ignored when developing strategies for screening and treatment. Psychological, social and genetic factors appear to be important in the development of IBS symptomatology through several mechanisms: alteration of HPA axis modulation, enhanced perception of visceral stimuli or psychological vulnerability. Elucidating the molecular mechanisms of IBS with or without psychiatric comorbidities is crucial for elucidating the pathophysiology and for the identification of new therapeutical targets in IBS
Breaking down the barriers: fMRI applications in pain, analgesia and analgesics
This review summarizes functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings that have informed our current understanding of pain, analgesia and related phenomena, and discusses the potential role of fMRI in improved therapeutic approaches to pain. It is divided into 3 main sections: (1) fMRI studies of acute and chronic pain. Physiological studies of pain have found numerous regions of the brain to be involved in the interpretation of the 'pain experience'; studies in chronic pain conditions have identified a significant CNS component; and fMRI studies of surrogate models of chronic pain are also being used to further this understanding. (2) fMRI studies of endogenous pain processing including placebo, empathy, attention or cognitive modulation of pain. (3) The use of fMRI to evaluate the effects of analgesics on brain function in acute and chronic pain. fMRI has already provided novel insights into the neurobiology of pain. These insights should significantly advance therapeutic approaches to chronic pain
Neurophysiological, psychological and immunological evaluation of Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Irritable
Bowel
Syndrome
(IBS)
is
a
common
gastroenterological
disorder
characterised
by
recurrent
abdominal
pain
and
a
change
in
bowel
habit.
Diagnosis
is
made
with
reference
to
clinical
symptomatology
and
the
exclusion
of
other
competing
disorders.
As
such
there
is
no
reliable
biomarker
in
the
clinical
field
to
prove
or
disprove
the
diagnosis.
This
has
obvious
implications
for
the
treatment
of
the
syndrome.
Recent
research
has
targeted
the
immunology
of
IBS
to
see
if
changes
in
cytokine
expression
support
the
concept
of
a
chronic
low-level
inflammatory
state.
IBS
has
a
strong
association
with
psychological
comorbidity.
Visceral
hypersensitivity
is
also
a
hallmark
of
the
disease.
This
study
was
constructed
to
compare
the
psychological
profiles
of
patients
with
IBS
against
a
control
group;
to
use
cortical
evoked
potentials
to
observe
the
cortical
representation
of
an
electrical
rectal
stimulus
to
see
if
changes
in
amplitude
or
latency
might
be
suggestive
of
enhanced
afferent
nerve
transmission;
and
to
use
cytokine
analysis
of
stimulated
and
un-stimulated
peripheral
blood
mononuclear
cells
to
study
the
inflammatory
response
Human psychophysiological responses to visceral and somatic pain โ the development of integrated, reproducible human pain phenotypes
PhDBackground
Pain is the ubiquitous human experience, yet displays considerable inter- and intraindividual
variability in health and disease. Many factors have been proposed to
account for these differences. Pain activates a complex stress response, multiply
determined through genetic, psychological, physiological and neuroanatomical
factors. Chronic pain is a central defining characteristic of functional gastrointestinal
disorders. They represent a major challenge for modern healthcare. An integrated
understanding of the pathophysiology of these disorders remains to be elucidated.
Aims
To investigate human psychophysiological responses to visceral and somatic pain in
health and disease, in order to develop multidimensional and reproducible pain
phenotypes.
Methods
Study 1, in healthy volunteers, investigated personality traits, hypothalamic pituitary
adrenal axes and selective novel non-invasive measures of autonomic tone in
response to visceral and somatic pain. Study 2 examined the salience of genetic
polymorphisms of the serotonin transporter. Study 3 evaluated the reproducibility
of these responses after a period of one year. Study 4 utilised the methods of
studies 1 and 2 in a case control study of patients with functional chest pain.
Key Results
Studies 1, 2 and 3 โ Two pain phenotypes, or clusters, were found โ cluster 1 (39%)
had higher neuroticism scores, with higher sympathetic and hypothalamic pituitary
adrenal axis tone at rest, and a predominant parasympathetic response to pain in
the presence of the short allele of the serotonin transporter. Cluster 2 (61%)
displayed the converse profile in the absence of the short allele. These responses
were stable at an interval of one year. Study 4 โ similar phenotypes were observed
in patients with functional chest pain, although the Cluster 1 phenotype was overrepresented
in patients in comparison to the controls (71% vs. 29%).
Conclusions and Inferences
This series of studies provides evidence for the existence of two reproducible
human pain phenotypes in health, which have clinical salience in patients with
functional chest pain. By phenotyping pain responses, subject homogeneity in future
studies may be improved. Furthermore, such phenotyping techniques may open
new therapeutic avenues by facilitating the selective targeting of nociceptive
aberrancies, particularly in functional gastrointestinal disorders
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