WASHINGTON — Smokers are much more likely to experience chronic back pain. And researchers say the reason why lies deep in the brain.
A team at the Northwestern University medical school followed 160 adults with new cases of back pain. They got five MRI brain scans over the course of a year, and filled out questionnaires about their smoking status, the extent of their pain, and their overall health
The researchers found that those who developed chronic pain lasting longer than 12 weeks were three times more likely to be smokers. Reporting in the journal Human Brain Mapping, the Northwestern team said its study turned up a difference in the smokers’ brain scans.
The difference was in the connection between two sections of the brain dealing with addictions and motivated learning. Dr. Edwin Numsuwan, a pain specialist with MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital, says “there is too much talk, in a way, between those two parts of the brain.”
All that chatter makes the body less resilient to pain. It isn’t necessarily more intense, but it does tend to last longer. Numsuwan says that is a big problem because “low back pain once it becomes chronic, it obviously becomes much harder to treat.”
He notes that the researchers also found that once a patient stopped smoking, the risk of chronic pain went way down. Numsuwan says that is another big piece of ammunition for doctors trying to convince those with aching backs to give up their cigarettes.
“Now we have more evidence that we can tell a patient, hey, if you have low back pain and you really want to get better, this is a very important strategy,” he says.
Back pain remains one of the biggest health problems in the United States, affecting 80 percent of Americans at some point in their lives. Numsuwan is it one of the top two reasons why patients see their primary care physicians. The other is the common cold.
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