Researchers at the Feinberg School of Medicine found chronic pain redesigns a region of the brain that controls emotion, but that change can be reversed by drug treatment.

The treatment restored the affected region and substantially reduced pain symptoms in animals using two FDA-approved drugs in combination. The researchers found it was key to use the drugs, one used to treat Parkinson’s disease and the other a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, immediately after injury.

The researchers also found that a drop in dopamine, a major neurotransmitter, causes a group of neurons believed to be responsible for negative emotions to be more easily excited and more strongly connected with other regions of the brain. These regions are linked to feeling bad following an injury causing chronic pain.

Based on their results, the scientists will pursue a clinical trial.

“It was surprising to us that chronic pain actually rewires the part of the brain controlling whether you feel happy or sad,” said study author James Surmeier, chair of the Department of Physiology at Feinberg, in a news release. “By understanding what was causing these changes, we were able to design a corrective therapy that worked remarkably well in the models. The question now is whether it will work in humans.”

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