Chronic pain can be made worse by either persistent alcohol use or alcohol withdrawal, as shown by the studies.
There are two possible biochemical mechanisms through which alcohol consumption (and subsequent abstinence) can increase sensitivity to pain. Scientists at Scripps Research who studied the connections between alcohol and pain came to this realization.
Significance of Alcohol to Chronic Pain
Alcohol can cause chronic pain and hypersensitivity, and this study, published in the British Journal of Pharmacology on April 12, 2023, provides novel pharmacological targets for treating these conditions.
In the United States, 29.5 million people have alcohol use disorder (AUD), which includes alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence, and alcohol addiction, as reported by the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
Many chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, liver disease, and some malignancies, have been linked to AUD over time.
More than half of patients with AUD report having some kind of continuous pain due to their alcoholism.
This includes the nerve damage brought on by alcoholism, which manifests itself in a variety of painful and other distressing ways.
Multiple studies have linked AUD to altered pain signal processing in the brain and altered immune system activation.
As a result, suffering often causes people to drink more heavily.
Allodynia, in which an innocuous stimulus is experienced as painful, can also occur during withdrawal in patients with AUD.
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Methodology Experiment
Roberto and her coworkers sought to know what causes alcohol-related pain. The new study examined how alcohol affected three groups of adult mice: heavy drinkers, moderate drinkers, and non-drinkers.
Alcohol-dependent animals developed allodynia during withdrawal, but when alcohol was available, pain sensitivity decreased significantly.
Half of the non-dependent mice also developed neuropathy after alcohol withdrawal, but unlike the dependent mice, alcohol did not improve it.
Despite inflammation pathways being heightened in both types of animals, Roberto’s team observed that dependent mice had higher levels of particular inflammatory proteins.
This shows different chemical pathways drive the two types of pain. It also suggests inflammatory proteins for treating alcohol-induced discomfort.
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