Chronic pain is an epidemic. One in four Americans suffers from chronic pain due to diseas including cancer and HIV and the medications used to treat those diseases. One reason for the persistence of chronic pain may be that the patient's central nervous system creates abnormal connections or improves connections that shouldn't be strengthened, explains Susan G. Dorsey, PhD, RN, co-director of the School of Nursing's Center of Excellence in Disorders of Neuroregulatory Function.
"Chronic pain makes a memory that shouldn't be made, such as the lasting damage to peripheral nerves sometimes caused by cancer drugs," she says. "The pain can still last after cancer treatment stops, and once memories are formed, they are difficult to unlearn."
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