WHERE DOES THE PAIN COME FROM?
The chronic pain and traumatic brain injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Jeffrey J. Kroll recently read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal entitled, Rewiring the Brain to Ease Pain, which explains how brain imagining technologies are helping scientists to learn more about "how the brain processes pain."
Everyone experiences and perceives pain in different way -- hence the phrases "my tolerance for pain is high" or "my tolerance for pain is low." According to the Wall Street Journal's article, many factors come into play, including "heredity, stress, anxiety, fear, depression, previous experience and general health." Motivation to overcome pain is also a factor to consider.
In an effort to better understand where pain comes from, researchers are now studying how the brain reacts to pain in various ways in hopes of developing alternatives to the highly relied-upon and perhaps overly-prescribed pain medications. The article discusses a study at Stanford University's Neuroscience and Pain Lab, where "subjects can watch their own brains react to pain in real-time and learn to control their response—much like building up a muscle." When distracted away from the pain, subjects' brains showed "more activity in the higher-thinking parts of their brains." In the alternative, when focusing on the pain specifically, subjects "had more activity in the deep brain structures that process emotion." These studies are exciting because they show how researchers are beginning to understand the processes of the brain more intricately. Many researchers believe that drug therapy is not the only answer for treating chronic pain.
"Some 116 million American adults—one-third of the population—struggle with chronic pain, and many are inadequately treated, according to a report by the Institute of Medicine in July." Brain "scans show that chronic pain (defined as pain that lasts at least 12 weeks or a long time after the injury has healed) represents a malfunction in the brain's pain processing systems. The pain signals take detours into areas of the brain involved with emotion, attention and perception of danger and can cause gray matter to atrophy." Rewiring the Brain to Ease Pain.
Research discussed in the Wall Street Journal article explores cognitive behavioral therapy, mediation, tai chi, and hypnosis to help focus patients away from thinking about pain and developing a negative outlook. Instead, these techniques and therapies focus on positive behaviors.
As Chicago chronic pain and brain injury attorneys, it is our role to understand the sequelae of chronic pain and traumatic brain injuries and maximize monetary recovery to provide for the injured individual. Jeffrey J. Kroll has lectured throughout the country and written articles on the issue of maximizing damages for non-economic injuries such as physical pain and suffering.
Having represented a number of individuals that have suffered from chronic pain and traumatic brain injuries, the attorneys at the Law Offices of Jeffrey J. Kroll understand the damages that result from chronic pain and traumatic brain injuries, including the wide range of functional short- and long-term changes causing paralysis and affecting thinking, sensation, language, or emotions. Many of the causes of chronic pain and traumatic brain injuries stem from the negligent conduct of others. We have secured million-dollar verdicts and settlements for our injured clients that have suffered chronic pain and brain injuries. The personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Jeffrey J. Kroll draw from experience to obtain justice for all of our clients. Contact us via our website by filling out a consultation form.
