The role of the brain in perceiving, modifying, and managing pain is the focus of NCCIH’s intramural research program—the research performed by NCCIH scientists at the National Institutes of Health laboratories in Maryland. The goal is to better understand the role of the brain in pain processing and control and how factors such as emotion, attention, environment, and genetics affect pain perception.
One recent study showed that pain-induced changes in the brain’s opioid receptor system—the molecules opioid drugs bind to in the brain—may explain the limited effectiveness of opioid therapy in chronic pain.
Another study found that some “automatic” responses to a potentially harmful stimulus, such as heat, are affected by whether a person perceives the stimulus as painful.
In two other studies, our intramural researchers identified a special class of nerve cells that play a unique role in sensing certain types of pain and a key molecule that controls pathways leading to chronic pain after nerve injury.
The insights from these studies may contribute to the development of more effective and safer ways to help people manage pain.
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