Where is the Origin of Chronic Pain?

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190319112206.htm
Chronic pain has been an ongoing battle for many individuals, which seems to have no permanent cure. Chronic pain is classified as neuropathic; because there is impairment to the nerve cells. Examples of chronic pain include Rheumatoid Arthritis, Phantom Limb Syndrome, and side effects resulting from a stroke. There has been a new study that has been done by researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, UT Health Science Center at Houston and Baylor College of Medicine that have found new evidence as to where chronic pain originates from, as well as multiple target points for treating chronic pain. The research study looks at concentrated nerve cells that are found near the base of the spinal cord. This grouping of concentrated nerve cells, called the dorsal root ganglia, gave the researchers a once in a life time chance to study them due to them being removed by surgery from cancer patients. The researches classified different RNA terminologies in the dorsal root ganglia cells. These different RNA terminologies come from differing patients by a couple of varying factors; the amount of pain that they are in as well as their sex, whether they are male or female. The explanation for whether or not the patient was male, or female is because it was found that men and women have different amounts of pain depending on their sex. Using the specific sequencing with the RNA, the dorsal root ganglia cells aided an idea of biochemical pathways which may enable researchers to formulate pain-relieving medications. After careful analysis of the results of this study, it was found that studies done to rats for chronic pain have been successful in generalization, but there is a missing component, which is accuracy.
In class, we discussed the dorsal root ganglia cells when we were talking about hearing and vision; how the dorsal is located in the back and the ganglia cells are clusters of cells. The dorsal aspect was specifically brought up when talking about hearing and seeing. Dorsal is the “where” processing system. For example, when it comes to vision, the dorsal stream is involved in locating objects. Chronic pain is a crucial part in understanding how the brain and body work in conjunction with one another because there are pain pathways that send signals from the brain down to the body which in turn causes the body to feel pain. For example, if one were to burn their finger, there is a signal that gets sent to the spinal cord, which then sends a signal back to respond to that painful stimulus.

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