Journal Club Meeting October 28, 2014

Time: 11:30 a.m. -1:00 p.m.

Location: Dental Sciences Building, Room D7-11

Greetings,

The aversiveness of pain as well as the reward of pain relief is processed by mesocorticolimbic circuits in the brain. These reward/motivational circuits have attracted a lot of attention both in clinical and preclinical studies (see attached). It is believed that anatomical and functional changes in these circuits contribute to the transition from acute to chronic pain. The clinical application of these changes has been found in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) (see attached). In FM patients activity in the ventral tegmental area during periods of pain and periods of anticipated pain relief have been shown to be dramatically reduced or abolished. In preclinical studies neurochemical studies have shown that changes in dopamine release may represent an objective neurochemical assay that may serve as a biomarker of efficacy for novel pain relieving mechanisms. Taken together these studies raise a number of questions regarding reward and motivation in pain and pain relief and establish a background for an interesting discussion that will be led by Dr. Jeff Boissoneault.

I want to remind everyone that pain journal club is a great educational opportunity that provides something for all who attend. I encourage all students and trainees to attend and present papers in their area of interest. I can guarantee you based on our past history that no matter what the topic there will always be an interesting discussion……so join us for what promises to have a little something for everyone.

Hope to see you next week!!

Please circulate to those you think might be interested in this topic!!

 

Loggia et al. 2014
Navratilova and Porreca 2014
Xie et al. 2014