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To Predict Chronic Pain, Look to the Brain

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Low back pain is extremely common. In fact, if you don’t have at least some back pain every year or so, you’re kind of abnormal. (Not that you’re really missing out on anything.)

Fortunately, if you do get back pain, your chances of getting rid of it in fairly short order are excellent. More than 90% of acute back pain resolves on its own in just a few weeks or months without any specific intervention. But for some people, pain becomes chronic, lasting for years. Why does the course of back pain differ so much between different people?

The answer probably cannot be found by looking solely at the back itself. Experts have tried for years to explain back pain outcomes in reference to the results of physical examinations. But collecting evidence about posture, core strength, or the condition of vertebrae and discs does very little to help you make good predictions. Posture and MRI results correlate poorly with pain, and a single structural/physical cause for back pain is rarely found.

More recently, there has been more emphasis on subjective factors – pain intensity, negative mood, catastrophizing, depression, or job satisfaction. Accounting for these factors will help you predict back pain outcomes quite a bit better than just looking at the physical condition of the back. But a good deal of mystery would remain.

Some recent research from the lab of Vania Apkarian has led some very smart people to wonder whether he has discovered the “Holy Grail” of explaining pain –  the precise factors that cause some people to develop chronic pain and others to recover.

If Apkarian is right, the grail is in the brain. (An important reminder and caveat: even when the brain is a major player in pain, this does not imply that pain is “in your head”, that pain is your fault, that you can just think pain away, or that the body doesn’t matter.)

Following is a collection of quotes from several papers from Apkarian’s lab. (See the bottom of the post for cites. Full text for each is available free online.) These help summarize the results and interpretations of his very interesting research, which mostly involves scanning the brains of people with and without back pain, and at various stages of recovery or chronicity.

The Relationship Between Nociception, Acute Pain, Movement, and Emotion

Pain is a conscious subjective experience that is most commonly driven by nociceptive activity. Baliki 2015.

Conscious acute pain perception is highly malleable … pain perception can reflect moment-to-moment shifts in value judgments. Baliki 2015.

The emotional limbic brain plays a critical role in bridging nociception and pain perception. Baliki 2015.

[N]ociceptors can be active in the absence of pain perception . . .The primary reason I fidget in my chair while writing this article is because nociceptors innervating my skin, muscle, and bone command that my posture needs adjustment. Baliki 2015.

The nociceptive control of behavior routinely occurs in the absence of consciously perceived pain, rendering it “subconscious.” Baliki 2015.

Daily motor movements could easily produce injury and tissue damage if one exceeds their natural range of motion . . . which supports the conclusion that motor behaviors are collectively inhibited by nociceptors. Baliki 2015.

We argue that nociception continuously occurs in the absence of pain perception and it is a fundamental physiological process . . . we presume that behaviors modulated by nociception, in the absence of pain, are contingent on already established habitual repertoires. In contrast, when pain is evoked it gives rise to new peripheral and spinal cord nociceptive learning/ sensitization, as well as emotional learning that is potentiated by the salience and perceived value of the aversive event. Baliki 2015.

The Transition From Acute To Chronic Pain

[O]nly a fraction of subjects who experience an acute painful injury develop chronic pain. Hashmi 2013.

The majority (>90%) of individuals with acute low back pain recover full function in days or weeks with little or no lingering pain. Apkarian 2009.

The 2 critical questions that the field has yet to address regarding chronic pain are 1) Who is vulnerable to developing it? and 2) What underlies this vulnerability?  Hashmi 2013.

Earlier clinical studies have identified a long list of risks for chronic pain, such as demographics, affective states, lifestyle, comorbidities, and others, yet collectively such parameters account for a relatively small amount of variance for chronic pain (10% to 20%). In contrast, the brain’s anatomic and functional properties predict development of chronic pain at 80% to 100% accuracy. Hashmi 2013.

Ample evidence now shows that the anatomy and physiology of the brain in chronic pain is distinct from that of healthy subjects experiencing acute pain. Vachon-Presseau 2016.

An accumulating body of animal and human literature has identified the cortico-limbic system, which is central to reward and motivated behavior, as a modulator for acute pain and as a mediator for chronic pain. Vachon-Presseau 2016.

In a longitudinal brain-imaging study, individuals who developed an intense back pain episode were followed over a 1-year period, during which pain and brain parameters were collected repeatedly. At the time of entry into the study, strength of synchrony between the medial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens (i.e. functional connectivity) was predictive (>80% accuracy) of individuals who subsequently transition to chronicity 1 year later. Apkarian 2016.

Persistently enhanced functional connectivity between the mPFC and NAc may be interpreted as an increased emotional salience signal. Vachon-Presseau 2016.

There is now good evidence that all components of the corticolimbic system are either affected by or control or amplify persistent pain states. Vachon-Presseau 2016.

Redefining Chronic Pain

The definition of chronic pain remains tautological, as it simply asserts that it is a long-lasting pain, or a pain persisting past the normal healing period. Baliki 2015.

We propose a novel definition of chronic pain. Rather than defining pain by its sensations, we propose a definition that emphasizes the neurobiological mechanisms that control behavioral adaptations, and we hypothesize that persistence of pain is likely mediated through the reorganization of the cortex by corticolimbic learning mechanisms. (Baliki 2015)

Long-term shifts in the threshold mechanisms that gate the conversion from nociception to pain also underlie the transition to chronic pain. We further propose that the threshold shift is dependent on limbic circuitry invoking synaptic learning-based reorganization. Taken together, these ideas can be simplified as a lowered mesolimbic threshold for the conscious perception of pain, which functionally renders the brain addicted to pain. (Baliki 2015)

The Connection Between Chronic Pain and Negative Mood

Just as nociception and pain protect against bodily injury by limiting behavior, negative moods minimize exposure to danger and promote survival by inhibiting behavior as well. (Baliki 2015)

Just as chronic pain conditions are associated with decreased hippocampal volume, a rich parallel literature indicates that depression is associated with hippocampal volume decrease. (Baliki 2015)

It is therefore not surprising that these conditions are often comorbid, and indeed, there is now a small but emerging literature regarding the interaction between negative moods and acute and chronic pain. (Baliki 2015).

Implications and New Questions

How does this research add to what we already know? We have known for a while that chronic pain involves central sensitization and brain changes. But it was still possible that those changes were driven by persistent peripheral input. Apkarian’s research seems to suggest that peripheral nociception is not the central driver of chronic pain.

It should be noted that some of Apkarian’s research needs to be replicated and that others may interpret his findings differently.

Apkarian was a featured speaker at the 2018 San Diego Pain Summit, I spoke there a few years ago and wrote about my experience attending here.

I was sure to ask Apkarian some questions which are basically unanswered in his various papers: if chronic pain is mostly about the brain’s emotional systems, what can we do, as a practical matter, to help treat or prevent it? And for people who do recover from chronic pain (like me and many others), how did their brains change? Did they revert or evolve?

I suspected there are no simple answers that apply to everyone, and that success for any particular person involves somehow changing the way their brain subconsciously connects movement, threat perception, and a sense of value or meaning.

Resources/Citations

Apkarian, A Vania, Marwan N Baliki, and Melissa A Farmer. 2016. “Predicting Transition to Chronic Pain” 26 (4): 360–67. doi:10.1097/WCO.0b013e32836336ad

Hashmi, Javeria A., Marwan N. Baliki, Lejian Huang, Alex T. Baria, Souraya Torbey, Kristina M. Hermann, Thomas J. Schnitzer, and A. Vania Apkarian. 2013. “Shape Shifting Pain: Chronification of Back Pain Shifts Brain Representation from Nociceptive to Emotional Circuits.” Brain 136 (9): 2751–68. doi:10.1093/brain/awt211.

Vachon-Presseau, E, M V Centeno, W Ren, S E Berger, P Tétreault, M Ghantous, A Baria, et al. 2016. “The Emotional Brain as a Predictor and Amplifier of Chronic Pain.” Journal of Dental Research 95 (6). International Association for Dental Research: 605–12. doi:10.1177/0022034516638027.

Baliki, Marwan N, and A Vania Apkarian. 2016. “Nociception, Pain, Negative Moods and Behavior Selection” 87 (3): 474–91. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.06.005.Nociception.

Apkarian, A.V., Balik, M.N., Geha, P.Y. 2009. “Towards a Theory of Chronic Pain.” Progress in Neurobiology 87 (2): 81–97. doi:10.1016/j.pneurobio.2008.09.018.Towards.

Articles of the Week October 18, 2020

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There are a lot of really great “go-to’s” in the exercise world. However, some of them become so staple that proper execution becomes  a problem. This article consults with multiple experts on how to correct them.

4 Exercises Most People Butcher (And How To Fix Them) – Shane Mclean

 

We coach our clients in injury prevention every day. Likely, none of these points will really be new, but this article summarizes ten great key takeaways for when we want to prevent pain when training. This is great for problem-solving with your clients or to provide them the entire article altogether!

10 Commandments of Injury Prevention – Dr. John Rusin

 

If you’re here, you love reading research and expanding your toolkit. However, there are some research biases that we need to be aware of in ourselves in order to make sure that we’re not unfairly filtering the wrong information in or out. (Enjoy this two-for-one!)

Top 5 Fridays! 5 Types of Fallacies Part 1  and Part 2 – Cameron Faller

 

Back in June, Greg Lehman wrote about his experiences with pain science regarding his own health. We know these concepts already, but it’s extremely handy to see new examples of them at work.

Pain lessons from my terrifying persistent stomach distress – Greg Lehman

 

Finally, one more older study on a topic that isn’t discussed very often. Researchers, a few years ago, looked into the sensation of “throbbing” pain that is typically related by professionals to circulatory flow. However, it’s shown that this link may not actually exist and that more research into the central nervous system is the key, instead.

Is There a Relationship between Throbbing Pain and Arterial Pulsations? – Mirza et al.

Motor Learning Pitfalls and Autonomic Resilience

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Sometimes, I’ve found that teaching a movement cue to a client can backfire.

Coaching a neutral pelvic position or a braced core to do exercise, for instance, are great techniques to perfect a squat and deadlift and train a person to lift a heavy load. However, if a client experiences pain or discomfort out of a regimented exercise setting, are these necessarily the best strategies to focus on?

Very often, I’ve seen individuals become extremely hyperaware of their body mechanics, whether it was due to cues from a clinician or because the assumption is that patterns from high-load fitness routines need to be maintained outside the gym.

My experience is that this can result in a couple of problems.

Pain Science

 

One is a concept that you’re likely familiar with by now; that being catastrophization. If we, as clinicians, don’t mind our language during our movement coaching, often enough, a person can develop a belief that anything outside of these trained movement cues will result in injury.

As you can guess, believing that “losing form” will equate to pain can lead to that belief becoming a reality. This is classic fear-avoidance coping and is why someone can perform a 300lb deadlift and then throw their back out when they finally bend their spine to tie their shoes.

For this reason, it’s important to educate clients about the resilience of the body to perform non-deliberate movement as well as to mix these types of movements into their exercise programming. While it’s important for me to teach many of my clients how to do a proper hip hinge, it’s equally important to recondition them on how to round their spines to pick up a sub max load.

At the same time, it’s also crucial to teach clients that these cues are not meant to be minded for every movement in day-to-day activity. Again, this would enforce these fear patterns and lead to what we discussed above. However, it also enforces a reliance on deliberate thought to perform these movements, which takes us to our second point.

Autonomic Neuroplasticity

 

Once we remember to add in these additional “natural movement” cues to accompany exercise instruction, there might still be a disconnect between the clinic and real-world conditioning.

What we need to consider is that the conscious focus on movement in the clinic or fitness setting (whether it be a traditional exercise or a natural back bend) doesn’t necessarily translate to the nervous system being able to replicate those cues in a safe manner, subconsciously.

This boils down to neuroplastic deficits within the central nervous system itself following an injury, with altered motor patterns becoming the new norm (Grooms, 2016). We can describe this by thinking about the thought processes that lead up to movement. In an “exercise” environment, the signals that precede movement are directly to do with that specific motor pattern; sending the signal to the muscle and joint on what to do and how strongly and fast to do it. Outside of this environment, these thought processes are much more complicated and the movement will need to follow more complicated reactionary signals. For instance, often we will need to simply extend our arm, reactionarily, in order to catch an object rather than having that moment of anticipation to ready the nervous system and compute the necessary speed and force that will be required beforehand.

What this implies is that being able to do a back bend in the clinic when all of your focus is on it only gets us part of the way toward being able to do the same thing at home when relying on autonomic function instead of deliberate action. This is why athletes who have undergone ACL reconstruction and rehab can be, clinically, cleared to return to play yet still be 40 times as likely to reinjure their knee compared to their peers (Wiggins et al., 2016).

Clinical settings commonly revolve around focusing on internal cues when learning movement patterns, such as relaxing one muscle, stiffening another, or bending deeper at this joint. However, external cues, such as “reach for the floor”, “aim for the target”, or “focus on the field” have been observed as being incredibly important in sports settings. These cues help to bring the attention away from the body and to the environment instead, creating a more practical situation by decreasing conscious body control.

With ACL reconstruction, again, being the studied example (Gokeler et al., 2019), it is found that relying solely on internal cues does not provide the best outcomes for when external factors are finally challenged again. Even when rehab conditioning is extremely sport or activity-specific, an ability to do a maximal sprint in a controlled environment might fail someone when they attempt to do the same thing with real-world distractions added. For this reason, a lot of rehabilitation research is actually starting to involve the use of virtual reality (Grooms, 2015) to retrain autonomic capabilities.

Obviously, we don’t expect every clinic to equip itself with a VR headset. So that brings us back to the importance of mixing in external cues with the internal ones as we educate our clients in new motor patterns. The clinical setting can take a lot of great lessons on how to do this from the performance world, with a mixture of the two types of cues, periodization of a program, and an understanding of individual variance being hugely important factors.

Takeaways

 

So from all of this, we can understand that mechanical cues and deliberate exercise patterns are still a step in the rehab process. Throughout, however, we need to reinforce that a client’s well-being is not dependent on these patterns being maintained around the clock or that conscious control does not need to be exerted over their maintenance.

Finally, we also need to remember that the quiet, clinical environment is usually not one that our clients spend the majority of their days in, so we also need to prepare them for the real-life hazards, distractions, and mental states that their normal workplace, sport, and home settings will challenge them with.

A client’s life is individual, and so is the preparation for it that we provide.

Articles Of The Week October 11, 2020

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A lot of us work with an active clientele who are looking towards prevention, not only recovery. This article discusses painful “niggles” that may be felt during activity which may be a warning signal for future injury.

The significance of painful “niggles” during exercise – Paul Ingraham

 

More great information showing the discrepancy of structural degeneration in relation to pain. This study, in particular, shows very minimal progression of pain in the knee during increases in cartilage-loss.

Does cartilage loss cause pain in osteoarthritis and if so, how much? – K.Bacon et al.

 

There’s a common belief among workers in physical jobs believe that their workday provides them sufficient physical fitness. However, there seems to be a discrepancy in the research that suggests otherwise.

Is it better to break a sweat at the gym or on the job? – Alex Hutchinson

While most of us aren’t likely to go into the depth of programming that this article speaks to while in clinical practice, it acts as great information on how loading varies between individuals on different days. It also has some tips for if you’ve ever encountered the problem of exercise volume being over- or under-prescribed.

What is internal load and load mangement? – Dillon Caswell

A very interesting take on internal versus external movement cueing. Again, this comes from a performance perspective but is immediately transferable to the clinical setting. A mixture of both types of cues, perhaps with a greater emphasis on the external ones, may help to create better resilience once conscious focus on movement is gone.

A Coach’s View on Internal and External Cueing – Matt Kuzdub

Let’s Stop Playing It Small Together

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Alright, I have a confession to make.

I came to the realization a week or so ago while listening to a podcast that I’ve…well…I’ve been playing it small.

While I put out a blog post or so a week, teach some continuing education courses on first aid along with pain science and exercise, I’ve still been playing it small.

There are certain things I’m really comfortable with and other things that make me pull back and question myself, my abilities, and my thought processes. So rather than just face, those things head-on I shrink back.

This happens especially on social media.

I see some of the groups where people are asking questions, or making statements, and rather than throw my $0.02 in, I shrink, and it’s usually out of fear.

The fear I’ll get called out, fear I’m not smart enough, fear that my voice or my opinion doesn’t matter (well truly to some I know it doesn’t but that’s not the point here).

So, then a strange thing happened. I was sitting with my buddy Eric Purves telling him this as we started discussing doing a mastermind group. I looked at him and said f@#k it, I’m not playing it small, I’m putting this out there.

I opened the laptop and put it out on Facebook. To my surprise, the post got 83 reactions and 117 comments.

Also to my surprise was the response in the comments. From physio friends asking what they can do to help promote, lots of people wanting to attend, and of course a couple of negative ones. BUT, the positive far outweighed the negative.

As I pondered this I realized I’m not alone. It’s not just me that needs to stop playing it small…so does our profession, and here’s why.

Education

I will forever be a proponent of advancing our education and making it better.

As I talk to other colleagues in different parts of the world (and it happens here too) we sometimes shy away from sharing our opinions or challenging the opinions of other healthcare practitioners because our education was shorter, or not perceived to be as good a quality as theirs.

This was the way I felt for MANY years.

However, a few years ago I came to realize that if you talk to any of those other healthcare practitioners (if they’re worth their salt) they want their education to get an overhaul as well. If any of them are taking any quality continuing education courses, they soon come to realize that many of the things they were taught in college aren’t worth the textbook it was written in.

Now I’m sure there will be some who argue with me on this, but with those other professions, their education isn’t better, it’s just different. Yes, they get more recognition because they have a degree behind their name (and their associations probably lobby a lot harder) however, it’s no more evidence-based than ours (maybe even less in some cases).

In reality, we’re all fighting the same uphill battle, our entire healthcare system needs an overhaul when it comes to helping people in pain.

So if you’re trying to have a discussion with another manual therapist there’s nothing wrong with challenging their treatment narratives as long as you’re approaching it from an educated standpoint (and obviously done with some sort of decorum).

We can’t challenge and say ” your approach is wrong because I do ‘x’ treatment which works because I do it and I know it works!” However, if we can approach the topic with a statement like: “the newest research shows us that our understanding of ‘x’ isn’t what we thought it was and has since changed to …” will get us much farther into the discussion.

I realize this might be tough because there seems to be a hierarchy within our manual therapy world and for some reason, we are frequently seen as the bottom of this. But, I have to wonder, is this reality, or are we playing it small?

The reality is, our entire healthcare system needs an overhaul in education when it comes to helping people in pain, not just our education.

Time Is On Our Side…Yes, It Is!

This may be our greatest asset.

The more I come to understand the patient perspective on persistent pain (thanks to Keith Meldrum’s help) the more I realize just what a difference time with a patient makes.

I love this quote from Ken Leong from a Facebook thread, and glad I was able to use it with his permission.

Massage therapy is almost tailor-made for [the biopsychosocial] approach. The therapist has much more time than a MD to really get to know their patient or client: where they’re from, their culture, customs, what their family life is like, their history with athletics, sedentary actives, repetitive activities, their stresses, their sleep patterns, their nutrition, their living situations, who they live with and interact with daily and weekly, their commuting stress, their occasional (and therefore dangerous) heavier physical exertions, etc.
The patient or client also has time in treatment to reconnect with their mind and body, to figure out where the aches and pains came from, what are their self-perpetuating patterns are, how they can change them…
It’s like you’re tall and in front of the volleyball net, and someone sets you up for ‘the spike.

We’d be blind NOT to use all this biopsychosocial opportunity!

Ken G. Leong, RMT
If this quote doesn’t make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside for being a Massage Therapist, I don’t know what will.
Compared to every other manual therapist we have a massive opportunity to help patients simply because of the time we get to spend with them.
If we reel back to the above discussion around talking to other practitioners, how many of them spend the amount of time with their patients that we do? How many truly get to know their patients? How many understand what their patients are going through day to day?
While a few of them might, I’d say as a general rule (yes there are some outliers) they don’t get to in the same way we do.
This whole time thing isn’t just a matter of our interaction with the patient either. I’ve seen some discussions on different platforms where practitioners say things like: “I have a patient who wants a 60-minute treatment, but I only need 45min to get done what they need”.
While there’s nothing really wrong with this (as I hope the practitioner was trying to do effective treatment planning) but think about what that amount of time actually means to a patient.
This could be their time! This could be their break from the typical stresses of life. Maybe that hour is a break from being a parent, boss, caregiver, entrepreneur, or whatever other thing is causing stress in their life. That 60 minutes can make a massive difference in their weekly, or monthly (or however often you are seeing them) routine and life.
And this my friends puts us into a very valuable position in not only helping, but making a difference in our patient’s lives. 

Exercise & Movement

I know, I know, you don’t think this is in your scope. 

Well, in some places it is well within our scope and for others it’s questionable.

So I’d like to somewhat address where this is questionable.

From everything I’ve heard the argument is usually “it’s not in our scope to prescribe exercise, we have to refer out for that”. Every time I hear this I also notice that AROM (active range of motion) and PROM (passive range of motion) are still within scope. So, how is a patient actively moving not an exercise? If we are passively moving a part of the patient’s body while they’re on the table, how is this not exercise? If you can help a patient stretch on the table, how is this not an exercise?

We seem to think that recommending an exercise is always prescribing that you do a certain number of reps for a certain number of sets of ‘x’ movement (bench press, squat, deadlift, etc).

What if recommending exercise was simply recommending:

  • Go for a walk with a friend (one of the best things for low back pain).
  • Get on the floor and play with your kids.
  • Dig your hands into the garden.
  • Pick up your groceries.

Just get them to do something they enjoy!

Half of recommending an exercise for someone can be just giving them permission to do an activity. When they’re on your table if you can do AROM & PROM, then there’s no reason you can’t do isometric, concentric, and eccentric movements and this doesn’t require any fancy machinery or even a set of dumbells, you can simply just resist the movement while the patient performs them.

Doing this can be very effective in not only rehabbing an injury but they can also demonstrate self-efficacy, resiliency, capacity, and really isn’t that what we’re trying to do with any treatment? I hope so.

I think the bottom line here is that we have every opportunity (and probably more so than other healthcare professions) to make a massive difference to help people who are dealing with a painful experience. We need to use everything we have at our disposal to not only help our patients but to help push the profession forward. In no way am I saying everything is fine and we should stick with the status quo, we certainly need to continually push for better education to create evidence-based practice for all of us. So, I implore the profession to stop acting like me and playing it small. Let’s challenge the bad narratives regardless of who is using them and take a firm grip on the benefits we have as a profession to not only help our patients but help each other.

If you’re interested in learning more about these topics, we’ll be launching an online course about pain science and therapeutic movement soon and you can join the waitlist by clicking HERE.

 

 

Articles Of The Week October 4, 2020

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Unhealthy perfectionism can exist in ourselves as practitioners as well as clients who we are trying to guide through behavioural change. Often, these unrealistic expectations can derail progress. This article looks at models of perfectionism and provides some tools to help us modify our goals for success.

The ‘Fine Line’ in Perfectionism – Christina Pozerskis

 

What is blood flow restriction? Is it snake oil or does it have real benefits? Do we understand the contraindications? Now we can.

Blood flow restriction training in a nutshell – Arash Rex Maghsoodi

 

In our clinical community, it’s common for us to fall down the rabbit hole of believing that we need to create very complex explanations and solutions to clients’ pain. Why do we gravitate to these biases instead of the simple approaches?

Why do you hate simplicity? – Adam Meakins

 

At this point, we know that central sensitization has a seemingly endless list of factors that can contribute to it. This article looks at nutritional habits that may play a much larger role than previously thought in our chronic pain.

Do nutritional factors play a role in central sensitization and chronic pain? – Integrative Pain Science Institute

 

Our patients often complain of back pain that spikes in the morning. Here’s a rundown with some differential diagnoses as well as morning pain myths that can help you assess clients in your practice.

6 Main Causes of Morning Back Pain – Paul Ingraham

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