Dimensions of pain catastrophising and specific structural and functional alterations in patients with chronic pain: Evidence in medication-overuse headache

Abstract

We examined the neuroanatomical substrate of different pain catastrophizing (PC) dimensions (i.e. rumination; magnification; helplessness) in patients with medication-overuse headache (MOH). We included 18 MOH patients who were administered the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) and scanned in a 3T-MRI. We conducted whole-brain volumetric and resting-state functional connectivity (FC) analysis to examine the association between gray matter (GM) density and FC strength and PCS dimensions controlling for depression and anxiety. Higher total PCS score was associated with decreased GM density in precentral and inferior temporal gyrus, FC between middle temporal gyrus and cerebellum and FC between precuneus and inferior temporal gyrus, as well as between frontal pole and temporal fusiform cortex. Regarding PCS dimensions, we mainly observed the involvement of a) somatosensory cortex, supramarginal gyrus, basal ganglia, core default-mode network (DMN) in rumination; b) somatosensory , core DMN, dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC)-DMN subsystem and cerebellum in magnification; and c) temporal regions, DMN and basal ganglia in helplessness. PC dimensions are associated with a specific structural and functional neuroanatomical pattern, which is different from the pattern observed when PC is considered as a single score. The involvement of basal ganglia and cerebellum needs further investigation.

Associations between pain catastrophizing and resting‐state functional brain connectivity: Ethnic/race group differences in persons with chronic knee pain

“…Increasing evidence demonstrates significant relationships between pain catastrophizing and pain‐related neural activity during pain processing [for reviews, see Galambos et al (2019); Malfliet et al (2017)] in both people with chronic pain (Ellingson et al, 2018; Gracely et al, 2004; Loggia et al, 2015) and healthy individuals (Berna et al, 2010; Seminowicz & Davis, 2006), including associations with resting‐state functional connectivity (Christidi et al, 2020; Coulombe et al, 2017; Jiang et al, 2016; Kim et al, 2015; Kucyi et al, 2014; Lazaridou et al, 2017; Lee et al, 2018). However, less is known about underrepresented ethnic/race groups and to date, few brain imaging studies have investigated the relationships between psychosocial factors (e.g., pain catastrophizing) and pain‐related neural correlates (Losin et al, 2020; Terry, Tanner, et al, 2020).…”

The Ruminative Thought Style with Associated Anxiety Influences the Occurrence of Medication-Overuse Headache

“…This suggests the existence of a specific structural and functional neuroanatomical pattern in the association between rumination and MOH. 24 Some other studies examining the relationships between pain catastrophizing level, sensory processing patterns, and headache severity in adolescents with episodic migraine have indicated that elevated rumination is correlated with a higher severity of migraine pain. They also indicate a higher pain catastrophizing level in migraine patients than in healthy controls, as also seen in enhanced rumination.…”

Functional connectivity of the visual cortex differentiates anxiety comorbidity from episodic migraineurs without aura

“…In this study, the visual-FC imbalance between the DMN and CEN detected in MwoA-OA patients exhibited significant correlations with the frequency of headaches, which may indicate the deficits of inhibitory function to compensate for the effects of recurrent episodes of pain. In addition, the ITG is considered to be part of the DMN [42] and has been shown to be associated with the deterioration of pain, consistent with the PCC/PCUN [43,44]. According to the above mentioned studies, the abnormal visualrelated FC patterns may account for some clinical and psychiatric symptoms in MwoA patients, such as the frequency of headaches, cutaneous allodynia and anxiety comorbidity.…”