What Does It Mean to Call Chronic Pain a Brain Disease?

Multiple investigators have recently asked whether neuroimaging has shown that chronic pain is a brain disease. We review the clinical implications of seeing chronic pain as a brain disease. Abnormalities noted on imaging of peripheral structures have previously misled the clinical care of patients with chronic pain. We also cannot assume that the changes associated with chronic pain on neuroimaging are causal. When considering the significance of neuroimaging results, it is important to remember that “disease” is a concept that arises out of clinical medicine, not laboratory science. Following Canguilhem, we believe that disease is best defined as a structural or functional change that causes disvalue to the whole organism. It is important to be cautious in our assertions about chronic pain as a brain disease because these may have negative effects on 1) the therapeutic dialogue between clinicians and patients; 2) the social dialogue about reimbursement for pain treatments and disability due to pain; and 3) the chronic pain research agenda. Considered scientifically, we may be looking for the cause of chronic pain through neuroimaging, but considered clinically, we are in fact often looking to validate pain complaints. We should not yield to the temptation to validate pain with the magnetic resonance imaging scanner (structural or functional). We should not see pain as caused by the brain alone. Pain is not felt by the brain, but by the person.PerspectiveNeuroimaging investigators have argued that brain imaging may demonstrate that chronic pain is a brain disease. We argue that “disease” is a clinical concept and that conceiving of chronic pain as a brain disease can have negative consequences for research and clinical care of patients with chronic pain.