To overcome that, one of the main projects adopted by HEAL is aimed at studying the nerves of patients with chronic pain directly, in part by restoring dysfunctional dorsal root ganglia and the trigeminal nerve from patients who underwent long-term surgery, as well as from cadaveric donors. . These samples are then sampled and analyzed using new technology – things like proteomics, spatial transcriptomics and metabolomics – see how they differ from other tissues. The goal, Gereau explained, is to identify the changes that occur at the cellular level during inflammation, and to create an atlas of processes and changes. Understanding that, he added, will eventually open the door to precision medicine, where drugs can be designed to target specific changes, rather than just treating pain with antibiotics or opioids. .
“In the beginning, everyone thought they were going to find this pain reliever that would replace opioids,” Gereau said. More and more, however, it seems that chronic diseases, like cancer, can end up having a variety of genetic and cellular factors that differ between the two forms of the disease. and from the unique makeup of the person experienced. “What we’re learning is that pain is not the only thing,” Gereau added. “It’s a thousand different things, all called ‘pain.’
For patients, too, The pain landscape is wildly varied. Some people spend years suffering from back pain, only to have it disappear for no apparent reason. Others are not so lucky. A friend of a friend spent five years with severe pain in his arm and face after a roughhouse with his son. He can’t work, can’t drive, can’t even ride without a neck brace. His doctors prescribed endless drugs: the highest dose of gabapentin, plus duloxetine and others. At one point, he admitted himself to a psychiatric hospital, because his pain was so severe that he was going to kill himself. There, he met another person who became suicidal after years of living with severe pain day in and day out.
What makes pain so chronic is that it is chronic: a collision that never ends. For those who are seriously ill, that is easy to understand. But even mild pain can be depressing. A pain rating of 3 or 4 out of 10 sounds mild, but having it almost all the time is grueling – and limiting. Unlike a broken arm, which gets better, or tendinitis, which causes pain mostly in response to overuse, chronic pain makes your world go down. It is difficult to work, and exercise, and even do many small things that make life meaningful and rich.
He is also lonely. When my arms first went crazy, I could barely function. But even after the worst is over, I find friends rarely; I have yet to drive more than a few minutes, or sit in a comfortable chair, and I feel guilty inviting people when there is nothing to do. According to Christin Veasley, director and founder of the Chronic Pain Research Alliance, said: “With chronic pain, the drugs, if you take them, they make you pass the ball, and you go on your way What people don’t realize is that when you’re in pain, even if you’re on medication, you don’t feel like you used to. At best, they can reduce your pain, but most of the time don’t remove it.”