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Common mechanisms of pain and depression: are antidepressants also analgesics?

Neither pain, nor depression exist as independent phenomena per se, they are highly subjective inner states, formed by our brain and built on the bases of our experiences, cognition and emotions. Chronic pain is associated with changes in brain physiology and anatomy. It has been suggested that the...

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Autores principales: Nekovarova, Tereza, Yamamotova, Anna, Vales, Karel, Stuchlik, Ales, Fricova, Jitka, Rokyta, Richard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3971163/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24723864
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00099
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author Nekovarova, Tereza
Yamamotova, Anna
Vales, Karel
Stuchlik, Ales
Fricova, Jitka
Rokyta, Richard
author_facet Nekovarova, Tereza
Yamamotova, Anna
Vales, Karel
Stuchlik, Ales
Fricova, Jitka
Rokyta, Richard
author_sort Nekovarova, Tereza
collection PubMed
description Neither pain, nor depression exist as independent phenomena per se, they are highly subjective inner states, formed by our brain and built on the bases of our experiences, cognition and emotions. Chronic pain is associated with changes in brain physiology and anatomy. It has been suggested that the neuronal activity underlying subjective perception of chronic pain may be divergent from the activity associated with acute pain. We will discuss the possible common pathophysiological mechanism of chronic pain and depression with respect to the default mode network of the brain, neuroplasticity and the effect of antidepressants on these two pathological conditions. The default mode network of the brain has an important role in the representation of introspective mental activities and therefore can be considered as a nodal point, common for both chronic pain and depression. Neuroplasticity which involves molecular, cellular and synaptic processes modifying connectivity between neurons and neuronal circuits can also be affected by pathological states such as chronic pain or depression. We suppose that pathogenesis of depression and chronic pain shares common negative neuroplastic changes in the central nervous system (CNS). The positive impact of antidepressants would result in a reduction of these pathological cellular/molecular processes and in the amelioration of symptoms, but it may also increase survival times and quality of life of patients with chronic cancer pain.
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spelling pubmed-39711632014-04-10 Common mechanisms of pain and depression: are antidepressants also analgesics? Nekovarova, Tereza Yamamotova, Anna Vales, Karel Stuchlik, Ales Fricova, Jitka Rokyta, Richard Front Behav Neurosci Neuroscience Neither pain, nor depression exist as independent phenomena per se, they are highly subjective inner states, formed by our brain and built on the bases of our experiences, cognition and emotions. Chronic pain is associated with changes in brain physiology and anatomy. It has been suggested that the neuronal activity underlying subjective perception of chronic pain may be divergent from the activity associated with acute pain. We will discuss the possible common pathophysiological mechanism of chronic pain and depression with respect to the default mode network of the brain, neuroplasticity and the effect of antidepressants on these two pathological conditions. The default mode network of the brain has an important role in the representation of introspective mental activities and therefore can be considered as a nodal point, common for both chronic pain and depression. Neuroplasticity which involves molecular, cellular and synaptic processes modifying connectivity between neurons and neuronal circuits can also be affected by pathological states such as chronic pain or depression. We suppose that pathogenesis of depression and chronic pain shares common negative neuroplastic changes in the central nervous system (CNS). The positive impact of antidepressants would result in a reduction of these pathological cellular/molecular processes and in the amelioration of symptoms, but it may also increase survival times and quality of life of patients with chronic cancer pain. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-03-25 /pmc/articles/PMC3971163/ /pubmed/24723864 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00099 Text en Copyright © 2014 Nekovarova, Yamamotova, Vales, Stuchlik, Fricova and Rokyta. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Nekovarova, Tereza
Yamamotova, Anna
Vales, Karel
Stuchlik, Ales
Fricova, Jitka
Rokyta, Richard
Common mechanisms of pain and depression: are antidepressants also analgesics?
title Common mechanisms of pain and depression: are antidepressants also analgesics?
title_full Common mechanisms of pain and depression: are antidepressants also analgesics?
title_fullStr Common mechanisms of pain and depression: are antidepressants also analgesics?
title_full_unstemmed Common mechanisms of pain and depression: are antidepressants also analgesics?
title_short Common mechanisms of pain and depression: are antidepressants also analgesics?
title_sort common mechanisms of pain and depression: are antidepressants also analgesics?
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3971163/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24723864
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00099
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