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It's not just psychological: It's embarrassing that doctors ever believed anything different.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26431880
J Pain. 2015 Sep 29. pii: S1526-5900(15)00881-0. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2015.08.012. [Epub ahead of print]
Smaller amygdala volumes in patients with chronic low back pain as compared to healthy control subjects.
Mao CP1, Yang HJ2.
Author information
Abstract
Although preclinical and clinical data strongly support an association between amygdala and chronic pain by the presence of mood and cognitive disturbances in affected individuals, little attention has been paid to morphometric measurement of the structure in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). In the present study, MR volumetric and surface analysis, using FMRIB's integrated registration and segmentation tool (FIRST), were performed to compare structural MR imaging data obtained from 33 patients with CLBP to those obtained from 33 demographically similar healthy controls. Our results indicated that the normalized volumes of the left and right amygdala were significantly smaller in the CLBP group than in the control group. Detailed surface analyses further localized these differences. The degree of volume reduction was different between the left and right amygdala, with a greater involvement of the left one. Both groups exhibited similar significant hemispheric asymmetry for the amygdala (left greater than right). Similar asymmetry were suggested in the subgroup of 24 un-medicated patients. No significant correlations were found between amygdala volumes and pain characteristics and/or depressive symptoms. Our study provides in vivo imaging evidence of abnormal morphology of the amygdala in patients with CLBP using a fully automated segmentation method.
PERSPECTIVE:
Our study found that patients with CLBP had statistically significantly smaller normalized volumes of the bilateral amygdala, as compared with the healthy controls, with a greater involvement of the left side. These results may help to characterize the impaired affective-cognitive dimension in patients with chronic pain.
Copyright © 2015 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
KEYWORDS:
FSL-FIRST; amygdala; chronic low back pain; morphology
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26431880
J Pain. 2015 Sep 29. pii: S1526-5900(15)00881-0. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2015.08.012. [Epub ahead of print]
Smaller amygdala volumes in patients with chronic low back pain as compared to healthy control subjects.
Mao CP1, Yang HJ2.
Author information
Abstract
Although preclinical and clinical data strongly support an association between amygdala and chronic pain by the presence of mood and cognitive disturbances in affected individuals, little attention has been paid to morphometric measurement of the structure in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). In the present study, MR volumetric and surface analysis, using FMRIB's integrated registration and segmentation tool (FIRST), were performed to compare structural MR imaging data obtained from 33 patients with CLBP to those obtained from 33 demographically similar healthy controls. Our results indicated that the normalized volumes of the left and right amygdala were significantly smaller in the CLBP group than in the control group. Detailed surface analyses further localized these differences. The degree of volume reduction was different between the left and right amygdala, with a greater involvement of the left one. Both groups exhibited similar significant hemispheric asymmetry for the amygdala (left greater than right). Similar asymmetry were suggested in the subgroup of 24 un-medicated patients. No significant correlations were found between amygdala volumes and pain characteristics and/or depressive symptoms. Our study provides in vivo imaging evidence of abnormal morphology of the amygdala in patients with CLBP using a fully automated segmentation method.
PERSPECTIVE:
Our study found that patients with CLBP had statistically significantly smaller normalized volumes of the bilateral amygdala, as compared with the healthy controls, with a greater involvement of the left side. These results may help to characterize the impaired affective-cognitive dimension in patients with chronic pain.
Copyright © 2015 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
KEYWORDS:
FSL-FIRST; amygdala; chronic low back pain; morphology