My grandmother suffers from chronic pain where most of the pain occurs in her lower back. She is a very healthy 73-year-old woman and she walks 3-4 miles a day. She does not like to tell us when she is in pain, but we can tell by her shifting in her chair or pulling out a cushion. Sometimes steroid shots help but ultimately there has been no substantial remedy. The obvious unhealthy way to deal with chronic pain would be to resort to drugs and alcohol. While they provide temporary relief to pain there can be mental and physical consequences to using them excessively. Another unhealthy way to deal with chronic pain is “catastrophizing” which is “obsessing over something (often the pain) until it becomes worse than it actually is” (Myers 2012). Another way could be when people resort to food consumption because they feel as though they have control over that and not their chronic pain. Unhealthy emotional food consumption could cause an unhealthy weight gain and lead to emotional problems. Three ways to handle chronic pain treatment are to manage your stress, become active and engaged, and to have a good support system (American Psychological Association 2001). I think the most important thing is to be mentally healthy to be able to deal with being physically unhealthy. The type of genes targeted are NOP-coding genes in the brain amygdala to help with gene therapy (Bowers et. al). Opioids are probably the main drug that inhibits pain sensation in the brain, and they are often prescribed by doctors for major pain. There is a problem with opioids in that they are highly addictive and can lead to addiction. Psychological factors probably play an important role and I think they begin to develop in adolescence. If a child has a certain view of pain, then that view could stick with them for a while and affect how they view pain as they grow older.
American Psychological Association. (2011). Coping with chronic pain. http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/chronic-pain
Bowers, W. J., Breakefield, X. O., & Sena-Esteves, M. (2011). Genetic therapy for the nervous system. Human molecular genetics, 20(R1), R28–R41. https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddr110
Myers, W. (2012). The Best and Worst Ways to Cope with Pain - Pain Management Center - Everyday Health. Retrieved from https://www.everydayhealth.com/pain-management/the-best-and-worst-ways-to-cope-with-pain.aspx