White matter in brain is abnormal in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain

People with chronic musculoskeletal pain seem to have abnormalities in the white matter in their brains compared to healthy people, says research published in The Journal of Pain. And some of these differences are directly related to severity of symptoms.
For some time, science has suggested that chronic musculoskeletal pain is associated with anatomical and functional abnormalities in grey matter. But until now, little research has investigated the role of white matter.
So experts used state of the art imaging techniques and found that people with chronic musculoskeletal pain do have abnormal white matter. It is not yet clear if the abnormalities are caused by – or cause – the pain.
“These results demonstrate that white matter abnormalities play a role in chronic musculoskeletal pain; either as a cause, predisposing factor, consequence, or compensatory adaptation,” the research team concludes.

To read the original research click here.

Image credit: Neal Fowler