Neuroscientific findings of the Ulm brain researcher Spitzer

Frankfurt, March 20, 2014 – When people suffer from pain or loneliness, the same nerve cells are activated in the brain. This is one of the study results presented by Ulm-based brain researcher Professor Dr. med. Dr. phil. Manfred Spitzer at the 2014 German Pain and Palliative Care Day in Frankfurt am Main.

In the studies presented by Spitzer, the reactions of healthy volunteers or pain patients to painful stimuli and other impulses were examined using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The results were astonishing: When a painful stimulus was applied, activity was detectable in the brain's pain center. Activity was also recorded in the same brain region when the volunteers had initially participated in a computer game and were suddenly no longer allowed to play. "Loneliness leads to pain," concluded the neuroscientist. Conversely, it has also been shown that pain medication can alleviate the suffering caused by loneliness.

In practice, this phenomenon explains why, for example, pain patients who are abandoned by their partner need stronger pain therapy, while on the other hand, people who are well integrated into their family can better tolerate stressful therapies.

Spitzer explains that this connection is evolutionarily determined. The region of the brain responsible for processing pain is meant to warn people of life-threatening situations. And in earlier centuries, these situations included not only physical injuries, but also exclusion from the community, which could be fatal.

The German Pain and Palliative Care Day runs until March 22nd. Co-organizers include the patient organization German Pain League, the German Society for Interdisciplinary Palliative Care, and the Institute for Quality Assurance in Pain Therapy and Palliative Medicine.

Further information can be found at www.schmerz-und-palliativtag.de

German Society for Pain Medicine (DGS)

The German Pain Society (DGS) is the largest European professional society dedicated to improving the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic pain, with more than 4,000 members. It is organized nationwide in over 120 regional pain centers, which host interdisciplinary pain conferences. The DGS's primary goal is to improve the care of people with chronic pain. This can only be achieved by establishing algology (the study of pain) as a medical discipline. This includes quality assurance in pain medicine through the establishment of treatment standards and the improvement of basic, advanced, and continuing education in pain diagnostics and pain therapy for physicians of all specialties. The DGS publishes the Pain Therapy Guide, which lists all its members. Together with the German Pain League (Deutsche Schmerzliga e.V.), the DGS organizes the annual German Pain and Palliative Care Day in Frankfurt am Main.