Arthritis is a disease of the joints, but it could be chemically altering patients’ moods, too.
“Pain and Your Brain” is the theme of this year’s annual Living Healthy With Arthritis Conference at the University of Arizona, where scheduled speakers will talk about subjects such as cognition, inflammation and the relation between brain health and pain perception.
The event is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, in the DuVal Auditorium at Banner-University Medical Center Tucson, 1501 N. Campbell Ave.
“We are learning quite a bit about the connection between brain and pain. One of the main features of arthritis is pain,” said Dr. C. Kent Kwoh, director of the UA Arthritis Center.
“If you have a burn, the pain is where the lesion occurs, but it’s also modulated centrally by your brain. They act in concert. The central mechanisms can amplify and dampen the pain responses,” Kwoh said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in four Americans may develop painful hip arthritis in their lifetime. And a quarter of adults with doctor-diagnosed arthritis report having experienced severe pain in the last 30 days.
A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine and UCLA suggested a direct biophysical link between long-term pain and depression, anxiety and substance abuse, noted Dr. David M. Labiner, who is head of the UA Department of Neurology and a professor of pharmacy practice at the UA College of Pharmacy.
Labiner will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming arthritis conference. The title of his talk is “Pain and Your Brain: Understanding the Role of the Brain in Central Mechanisms of Pain and Inflammation.”
Pain causes changes in the brain that can result in inflammation, Labiner said. And the evidence now shows that inflammation can alter mood.
“The inflammation in the brain may in fact turn off your brain-reward system that gives you pleasure. You lose the ability to feel pleasure,” Labiner said.
“Chronic pain is certainly an ailment that many people deal with, and it does argue for an interdisciplinary approach to pain management. It also tells us that the depression these people are feeling is legitimate, it’s not just not coping.”
If pain leads to depression, the cycle is nothing but a downward spiral. And Labiner said the recent scientific advances give him hope that there is a way to break the cycle.
“Chronic pain is a leading cause of suicide in this country,” he said. “It’s in the top three, to be sure. And that is pretty telling testimony that this problem is very real and very difficult to manage.”
Chronic pain does not serve any physiologic or safety role, Labiner said.
“It’s just there, and it’s a cycle that needs to be broken. As we understand these mechanisms that are involved not just peripherally but centrally in the brain, there’s a chance that we may actually find a way forward to help patients that are dealing with this,” he said.
Other scheduled topics in sessions at the upcoming conference include a roundtable about how physical stress and cardiovascular health impact brain health and cognition, exercises for the brain and body, the latest advancements in the treatment of lupus and a talk by Kwoh about treating arthritis of the hand.
