Current Understanding of the Neural Circuitry in the Comorbidity of Chronic Pain and Anxiety

Chronic pain patients often develop mental disorders, and anxiety disorders are common. We hypothesize that the comorbid anxiety results from an imbalance between the reward and antireward system due to persistent pain, which leads to the dysfunction of the pain and anxiety regulatory system. In thi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of neural transplantation & plasticity 2022-02, Vol.2022, p.4217593-13
Main Authors: Chen, Teng, Wang, Jing, Wang, Yan-Qing, Chu, Yu-Xia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analgesics
Animals
Anxiety
Anxiety Disorders - epidemiology
Behavior
Brain
Chronic pain
Chronic Pain - epidemiology
Comorbidity
Development and progression
Dopamine
Humans
Hypothalamus
Hypotheses
Mentally ill
Narcotics
Neural circuitry
Neuroplasticity
Pain
Physiology
Review
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Summary:Chronic pain patients often develop mental disorders, and anxiety disorders are common. We hypothesize that the comorbid anxiety results from an imbalance between the reward and antireward system due to persistent pain, which leads to the dysfunction of the pain and anxiety regulatory system. In this review, we will focus on changes in neuroplasticity, especially in neural circuits, during chronic pain and anxiety as observed in animal studies. Several neural circuits within specific regions of the brain, including the nucleus accumbens, lateral habenular, parabrachial nucleus, medial septum, anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex, and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, will be discussed based on novel findings after chemogenetic or optogenetic manipulation. We believe that these animal studies provide novel insights into human conditions and can guide clinical practice.
ISSN:2090-5904
0792-8483
1687-5443
DOI:10.1155/2022/4217593