Consequences of the inflamed brain and its relation to chronic pain.

Steven F. Maier, Ph.D. and Linda R. Watkins, Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder report on Consequences of the inflamed brain.

Inflammation in the body can lead to inflammation in the brain. Inflammation is part of the immune system’s response to defend you. If the acute inflammatory response goes on too long eg more than a few days,  it can  lead to outcomes that nature did not intend. This could lead to "cognitive impairment instead of brief memory disruption, depression instead of reduced mood, fatigue instead of inactivity, and chronic pain instead of acute pain." "That is, physiology can become pathology when a set of processes designed to be relatively brief becomes prolonged."

Peripheral inflammation is highly complex and involves many immune cells and their products. At present our existing anti-inflammatory drugs often target only one of these. Hopefully studies such as this will lead to the  development of more effective anti-inflammatories which better target the these complex mediators of inflammation.