Involvement of the hippocampus in chronic pain and depression

Tahmineh Mokhtari; Yiheng Tu; Li Hu

doi:10.26599/BSA.2019.9050025

Brain Science Advances 2019, 5(4): 288-298 https://doi.org/10.26599/BSA.2019.9050025

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Open Access | Issue | Published: 18 May 2020

Involvement of the hippocampus in chronic pain and depression

Show Author's Information Hide Author's Information Tahmineh Mokhtari^{¹^,²}, Yiheng Tu^³, Li Hu^{¹^,²}(

)

1CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

2Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

3Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA

Keywords:

depression, hippocampus, chronic pain, proinflammatory cytokines, brain-derived neurotrophic factor

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Mokhtari T, Tu Y, Hu L. Involvement of the hippocampus in chronic pain and depression. Brain Science Advances, 2019, 5(4): 288-298. https://doi.org/10.26599/BSA.2019.9050025

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Abstract Full text About this article

Abstract

Increases in depressive behaviors have been reported in patients experiencing chronic pain. In these patients, the symptoms of pain and depression commonly coexist, impairing their lives and challenging effective treatment. The hippocampus may play a role in both chronic pain and depression. A reduction in the volume of the hippocampus is related to reduced neurogenesis and neuroplasticity in cases of chronic pain and depression. Moreover, an increase of proinflammatory factors and a reduction of neurotrophic factors have been reported to modulate the hippocampal neurogenesis and neuroplasticity in chronic pain and depression. This review discusses the mechanisms underlying the depressive-like behavior accompanying chronic pain, emphasizing the structural and functional changes in the hippocampus. We also discuss the hypothesis that pro-inflammatory factors and neurotrophic factors expressed in the hippocampus may serve as a therapeutic target for comorbid chronic pain and depression.

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About this article

Involvement of the hippocampus in chronic pain and depression

Show Author's information Hide Author's Information Tahmineh Mokhtari^{¹^,²}, Yiheng Tu^³, Li Hu^{¹^,²}(

)

1CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

2Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

3Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA

Abstract

Keywords: depression, hippocampus, chronic pain, proinflammatory cytokines, brain-derived neurotrophic factor

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Publication history

Received: 06 November 2019

Revised: 08 December 2019

Accepted: 15 December 2019

Published: 18 May 2020

Issue date: December 2019

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31671141, No. 31822025), the Informatization Special Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XXH13506-306), and the Scientific Foundation project of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. Y6CX021008).

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