Pain memory – what is that?
Many people suffer from chronic pain, especially due to spinal diseases (see: Spinal diseases symptoms). In the context of this chronic pain, a pain memory can develop. One speaks of chronic pain if the pain has been present for at least six months. They impair the patient not only physically, but above all psychologically. In Germany, between about ten percent of all people suffer from chronic pain.
How does a memory of pain develop?
A pain memory can develop when pain persists over a long period of time and is not treated or is only inadequately treated. Normally, pain has a warning function. It makes us aware that our body is exposed to something harmful.
A simple example is the hot stove, which causes short-term pain almost immediately, so that you pull your hand away immediately. If a pain memory has developed, the pain has lost its actual function, and in most cases there is no longer a cause. If this process is repeated over and over again, at some point no pain event/pain stimulus is necessary for the nerve cell to send out a signal and thus trigger a sensation of pain.
This cell is then called spontaneously active. In this case there does not have to be any disease, for example in the back, which provokes the pain, but the nerve cells are simply accustomed to a permanent activation. In the long term, it can even lead to changes at the gene level.
These then lead to a changed cell membrane, which means that the affected nerve cells can be activated more quickly, resulting in a stronger pain experience. The processes that take place are similar to the processes that take place during learning. By means of local anaesthetics or painkillers, this so-called long-term potentiation, i.e. the development of a pain memory, can usually be prevented.
However, this is not possible with general anesthesia or tranquilizers, as neither of these act at the spinal cord level. Normally, our body has a built-in protective mechanism against excessive pain, which is also intended to prevent the development of a pain memory. In the spinal cord, the body’s own painkillers (opioids) or inhibitory amino acids can be released, which inhibit the pain-mediating nerve cells.
These mechanisms are constantly active, but are activated again to a particular extent under stress or when several pain stimuli are present. If this system is insufficiently developed, one is more sensitive to pain and it is easier for a pain memory to develop. These individual inhibition mechanisms mean that some people are more sensitive to pain than others and some people develop a pain memory more easily.
