The Role of Neuroplasticity and its Effects on Opiates in Chronic Pain Management

I believe that people living with chronic pain need to know about the role of Neuroplaticity (I call this the hijacked brain syndrome).  Before discussing the role of Neuroplasticity in chronic pain management it is important to have a working definition of the term. Neuroplasticity (variously referred to as brain plasticity or cortical plasticity or cortical re-mapping) refers to the changes that occur in the organization of the brain as a result of learning and experience. A surprising consequence of neuroplasticity is that the brain activity associated with a given function can move to a different location within the brain as a consequence of normal experience or brain damage/recovery.

Research published in Pain Physician Journal (2006) indicated that 90 percent of people in the US receiving treatment for pain management are prescribed opiate medication. Of that number 9 percent to 41 percent had opiate abuse/addiction problems.

According to research published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 933:175-184 (2001) titled “Spinal Cord Neuroplasticity following Repeated Opioid Exposure and Its Relation to Pathological Pain;” convincing evidence has accumulated that indicates there are neuroplastic changes within the spinal cord in response to repeated exposure to opioids. Such neuroplastic changes occur at both cellular and intracellular levels. Since so many people living with chronic pain are using opiates these neuroplastic changes need to be better understood.

To learn more about the hijacked brain syndrome please check out my article Chronic Pain and the Hijacked Brain that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

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You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are in recovery and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing your pain and medication effectively go to our Publications page and check out my book the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Recovery Guide: Managing Pain and Medication in Recovery. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To listen to a recent radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to this interview.

To read the November issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.
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