This is a tremendous thread and it's simply inexplicable I missed it. I'll have to go back and read the last five or six pages much more carefully but wanted to make a couple observations now.

"Given that CRPS patients are presumed to be in a constant negative emotional state and exhibit multiple signs of abnormal autonomic function, atrophy of right AI in CRPS corroborates the above studies and suggests that central anatomical abnormalities may explain fundamental symptoms of CRPS."

I experience what I percieve as left hemisphere degeneration but it seems primarily in the pons and brain stem with some affect on the amygdala and frontal cortex.

My RSD started with an injury but I have the impression that it was just lying in wait for a trigger rather than being the result of the injury itself. There were tiny clues in retrospect that there might have been precursors. I improve when given large doses of antibiotics.

One thing that I think I can state categorically is that the changes in the brain are wholly independent of pain, at least for me. I very rarely have excrutiating pain and the pain I do experience is normally manageable. I suppose I spend a lot of mental effort to suppress it.

I can certainly relate to the constant negative emotions. It's been a roller coaster between the lows of depression/ pain to the highs of paranoia/ anxiety. Fortunately there are a lot of things I can do and enjoy or I'd be a basket case. I still feel like I'm serving a needful function making the absurd seem obvious and helping family. I also have hobbies with which I can still spend time.

The point is the negative emotion is caused by brain changes and is independent of pain. Apparently there are some RSD patients who don't experience pain at all. One has to question what is causing the changes in the brain if it isn't pain.