Bobber -
What you describe is almost universal, to the point that an alleged "pain psychologist" told me that there was nothing I clould do about it. Boy was he wrong. Please check out the following threads in this forum, all of which have addressed your concern:
RSD and random crankiness? http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...d.php?t=114027
started 02.06.10
Chronic Pain Effects the Brain
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=87636
started 05.22.09
RSD and Your "Emotional State"
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=93290
started 07.11.09
Most of the relavent informantion I know is in there, in particular, I would invite your attention to the discussion of "The Brain in Chronic CRPS Pain: Abnormal Gray-White Matter Interactions in Emotional and Autonomic Regions," Paul Y. Geha, Marwan N. Baliki, R. Norman Harden, William R. Bauer, Todd B. Parrish, and A. Vania Apkarian,
Neuron 60, 570–581, November 26, 2008, FREE FULL TEXT at
http://www.apkarianlab.northwestern....00811_Geha.pdf
SUMMARY
Chronic complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a debilitating pain condition accompanied by autonomic abnormalities. We investigated gray matter morphometry and white matter anisotropy in CRPS patients and matched controls. Patients exhibited a disrupted relationship between white matter anisotropy and whole-brain gray matter volume; gray matter atrophy in a single cluster encompassing right insula, right ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), and right nucleus accumbens; and a decrease in fractional anisotropy in the left cingulum-callosal bundle. Reorganization of white matter connectivity in these regionswas characterized by branching pattern alterations, as well as increased (VMPFC to insula) and decreased (VMPFC to basal ganglion) connectivity. While regional atrophy differentially related to pain intensity and duration, the strength of connectivity between specific atrophied regions related to anxiety. These abnormalities encompass emotional, autonomic, and pain perception regions, implying that they likely play a critical role in the global clinical picture of CRPS. [Emphasis added.]
PMID: 19038215 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] PMCID: PMC2637446 [Available on 2009/11/26]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum
And here's the crucial paragraph from pp. 575 - 576 of the article:
Role of VMPFC in CRPS in Relation to Emotional Decision-Making
Atrophy in the right VMPFC was correlated with the interaction of duration and intensity of CRPS pain, which functionally segregates the atrophy in this region from right AI [anterior insula] and suggests a more global impact, or ‘‘emotional load,’’ of CRPS on the VMPFC. Atrophy within this region was our primary hypothesis because CRPS patients perform poorly on the emotional decision-making task (Apkarian et al., 2004a), which has been shown to critically depend on an intact VMPFC (Bechara et al., 2000). In fact, even when CRPS pain is transiently reduced, performance on this task does not improve and CRPS patients do not show evidence of learning the task (Apkarian et al., 2004a). In contrast, chronic back pain patients who exhibit atrophy in the thalamus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) (Apkarian et al., 2004b), although also abnormal on this task, exhibit clear signs of learning and improved performance over time. Emotional decision-making critically depends on the ability to evaluate options in terms of potential reward or punishment; such decisions require proper capturing and evaluation of sensory cues, including bodily autonomic responses. It is thus not surprising that autonomic regulation and monitoring involve many of the same cortical regions implicated in emotional decision-making, especially ACC, VMPFC, and AI. Therefore differential atrophy of gray matter and abnormal connectivity of associated white matter tracks involving ACC, VMPFC, and AI in CRPS, in contrast to atrophy of DLPFC in chronic back pain, must underlie their differential responses on emotional decision-making, especially given the fact that CRPS is associated with autonomic abnormalities and chronic back pain is not.
(It's tough going, but the illustrations and schematic diagrams - which can't be copied here -are easier to follow than the text.)
But what is not included in the previous posts is that there is a corresponding body of literature suggestiing that the very reverse of these observed neuro-physiological effects has been demonstrated in long term, committed meditators, in whom is observed, among other things, an acutal
thickening of the cortical cells on the right anterior insula. But before you think I'm getting all Buddhist on you, let me suggest that there is no reason why the same effects couldn't be seen in "Christian Centering Prayer," where instead of silently speaking to God, one listens in silence for the intervention of the Holy Spirit. There are other techniques as well, out set out in a Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centering_prayer
With that introduction, here are a couple of articles on the effects of meditation on the brain, as observed through fMRI scans, speficially as it effects emotional regulation:
Lazar SW, Kerr CE, Wasserman RH et al, Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness,
Neuroreport. 2005 Nov 28;16(17):1893-7, FREE FUUL TEXT at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...nihms-6696.pdf
Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. lazar@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu
Abstract
Previous research indicates that long-term meditation practice is associated with altered resting electroencephalogram patterns, suggestive of long lasting changes in brain activity. We hypothesized that meditation practice might also be associated with changes in the brain's physical structure. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess cortical thickness in 20 participants with extensive Insight meditation experience, which involves focused attention to internal experiences. Brain regions associated with attention, interoception and sensory processing were thicker in meditation participants than matched controls, including the prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula. Between-group differences in prefrontal cortical thickness were most pronounced in older participants, suggesting that meditation might offset age-related cortical thinning. Finally, the thickness of two regions correlated with meditation experience. These data provide the first structural evidence for experience-dependent cortical plasticity associated with meditation practice.
PMID: 16272874 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16272874
AND
Lutz A, Brefczynski-Lewis J, Johnstone T, Davidson RJ., Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: effects of meditative expertise,
PLoS One. 2008 Mar 26;3(3):e1897, OPEN ACCESS FREE FULL TEXT at
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%...l.pone.0001897
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America. alutz@wisc.edu
Abstract
Recent brain imaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have implicated insula and anterior cingulate cortices in the empathic response to another's pain. However, virtually nothing is known about the impact of the voluntary generation of compassion on this network. To investigate these questions we assessed brain activity using fMRI while novice and expert meditation practitioners generated a loving-kindness-compassion meditation state. To probe affective reactivity, we presented emotional and neutral sounds during the meditation and comparison periods. Our main hypothesis was that the concern for others cultivated during this form of meditation enhances affective processing, in particular in response to sounds of distress, and that this response to emotional sounds is modulated by the degree of meditation training. The presentation of the emotional sounds was associated with increased pupil diameter and activation of limbic regions (insula and cingulate cortices) during meditation (versus rest). During meditation, activation in insula was greater during presentation of negative sounds than positive or neutral sounds in expert than it was in novice meditators. The strength of activation in insula was also associated with self-reported intensity of the meditation for both groups. These results support the role of the limbic circuitry in emotion sharing. The comparison between meditation vs. rest states between experts and novices also showed increased activation in amygdala, right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), and right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in response to all sounds, suggesting, greater detection of the emotional sounds, and enhanced mentation in response to emotional human vocalizations for experts than novices during meditation. Together these data indicate that the mental expertise to cultivate positive emotion alters the activation of circuitries previously linked to empathy and theory of mind in response to emotional stimuli.
PMID: 18365029 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18365029
Slould you know any psychologists, these articles might be worth reviewing with them. And for what it's worth, I'm reliably advised that Richard Davidson is the leading figure in the world on fMRI studies of meditative consciousness.
There is however one caveat I should add: it's not clear to what extent the results obtained from "experienced meditators" are a function of the depth of their meditative experience, something that I know from personal experience maybe - but not necessarily - more difficult to achieve in people whose powers of concentration (the ability to attend to that which is not otherwise deemed interesting) may have deminished over the years with CRPS. For instance, I know that I had a much easier time achieving relatively high states of concentration when I was just statrting out in 2002- 2003, less than 2 years into CRPS that I do today. That said, check out the last paragraph of my reply to Sandy last night in the
Any others with RSD have memory/ concentration problems? thread at
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread12479-5.html (post 45).
In otherwords, not to worry. This too shall pass.
Mike