The Brain Institute Newsletter
May 2008
The Complexities of Pain: Loss, Treatment, and Hope
Pain is the brain’s way of telling us that something isn’t quite right in the body – and it’s something that we all experience. But it isn’t as easy to understand the brain’s role in generating and withstanding pain. For people who suffer from chronic pain – the kind that lasts more than a few months, sometimes with no obvious cause – unlocking the mysteries of these problems is especially important.
There are a few things that we do understand. First, we know that pain does cause harm to the brain. “Functional neuro-imaging studies have recently confirmed that unremitting pain damages the brain—and in some cases, the damage is irreversible,” says Dr. Perry Fine, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Utah’s Pain Research Center, and a Brain Institute member.
We also know that people who have chronic pain can experience losses – including jobs, relationships, and lifestyle options. But they may also endure the greatest damage of all: the loss of self.
As Dr. Susan Connor, a clinical psychologist at the University Neuropsychiatric Institute,describes it, people facing the prospect of a life filled with pain – and the loss of their prior healthy selves – experience a period of bereavement complete with all the classic stages of grief, including denial, anger, bargaining and depression.
The final stage, acceptance, isn’t easily won – and it can be fleeting. “Accepting the new life with chronic pain is cyclical – you might accept it at one time, but then when your pain flares up again, you have a difficult time with acceptance,” says Dr. Connor. “Chronic pain can be very disruptive.”
While there are no easy solutions to the complex problem of chronic pain, researchers at the Brain Institute and the Pain Research Center are collaborating to find new answers.
Read more about current advances in pain research and treatment in
THOUGHT - Newsletter of the Brain Institute at the University of Utah
GET MINDFUL SLC
Salt Lake Tribune
March 15, 2008
Statistics paint ugly postcard - Utahns are seriously bummed out.
Number crunchers have told us so twice this year. The latest study, released last week by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, found the state has the highest percentage of adults who report feeling ''serious psychological distress.'' Which explains another Utah ranking: the highest use of antidepressants in the nation. We're keeping Pfizer afloat with our prescriptions.
Read full article by Rebecca Walsh
Salt Lake Tribune
sltrib.com
GET MINDFUL SLC
Psychology Today, April 2008
Second Nature
"Your personality isn't necessarily set in stone. With a little experimentation, the ornery and the bleak can reshape their temperaments and inject pluck and passion into their lives."
Read full article by Kathleen McGowan
Psychology Today, April 2008
psychologytoday.com
GET MINDFUL SLC
FYI - The University of Utah Newsletter for Faculty
March 19, 2008
The Health Benefits of Meditation
"In this fast-paced world, it often feels like you can’t slow down. Your physical and mental health depends on your ability to appropriately manage your stress level."
Read full article by Torrence Wimbish, University of Utah Counseling Center web.utah.edu/fyi
GET MINDFUL SLC
Finding the Peace Within Us
APA Monitor Jul/Aug 2002
"Once just a ritual of the monastery, today meditation is mainstream, and psychologists are embracing the practice on several levels. Not only do more psychologists study it, use it in interventions, and recommend it to patients, some practice it themselves as a self care technique."
"Meditation is more than a stress-reduction technique. It'a a whole affect management approach," says Scott Bishop, Ph.D., Univeristy of Toronto, " It's a way of developing a different relationship with our experiences of stress and affect and thinking that helps with all aspects of life."
Read full article by Bridget Murray
APA Monitor
apa.org/monitor
GET MINDFUL SLC
|
