NeuroTalk Support Groups - Chronic Pain changes the brain: Boot Camp

'Boot Camps' Treat Pain Sufferers

By CARLA K. JOHNSON – 5 days ago

CHICAGO (AP) — Ballet teacher Gayle Parseghian thought she might never dance again after a back injury while moving heavy furniture left her with unrelenting pain. But an intensive, four-week "boot camp" got the 55-year-old dancer from Toledo, Ohio, back to the barre.

The program at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago taught her to manage the chronic pain that had tormented her for more than a year.

"It affects your relationship with your spouse, your family, your friends, your boss," she said. "It's like you're trapped in your body and you can't get out. It's a feeling of being completely out of control."

New research suggests chronic pain affects the brain's ability to rest, disrupting a system that normally charges up some brain regions and powers down others when a person relaxes.

"I ask a patient who has had chronic pain for 10 years to put the mind blank, don't think about anything," says Dr. Dante Chialvo, a researcher at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine who is not involved with the boot camp.

MRI images show the pain sufferer's brain lighting up, but not as a normal brain at rest would, he said. "There is an objective biological difference in the brain."

The early findings could explain the sleep disturbances, decision-making problems and mood changes that often accompany chronic pain, he said.

And they could explain why the boot camp approach worked for Parseghian.

The Chicago program, affiliated with Northwestern's medical school, attacks pain on three fronts — biological, psychological and social. It doesn't claim to cure chronic pain, but instead gives patients tools to lessen its hold on their lives.

Patients spend Monday through Friday stretching, exercising and moving in new ways. They meet with a physician, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, a biofeedback therapist, a clinical psychologist and a movement specialist.

They may address depression or sleep problems or adjust their medications. And they learn from the other patients in the program.....

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h...SIYWQD8VFF4KG1

On the Net:

* Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities: http://www.carf.org/
* Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago: http://www.ric.org/