The surprising link between back pain and a sensitivity to loud noises

Key Points:

• A new study published in Annals of Neurology found that people with chronic back pain experience heightened sensitivity to unpleasant sounds, suggesting their brains amplify unpleasant sensory information beyond just pain.
• Researchers observed that individuals with chronic back pain reacted more strongly to noxious sounds than 84% of pain-free participants, and the degree of sound unpleasantness correlated with back pain severity.
• Pain reprocessing therapy (PRT), a psychological intervention aimed at retraining the brain to interpret pain as less threatening, showed modest improvements in both chronic back pain intensity and sensitivity to low-intensity unpleasant sounds.
• Brain scans revealed stronger reactions in auditory and emotional processing areas of the brain for those with chronic pain, supporting the idea of a shared neural mechanism amplifying both pain and sensory unpleasantness.
• Experts note it is unclear whether hypersensitivity leads to chronic pain or vice versa, and further research is needed to explore multi-sensory amplification and the broader applicability of therapies like PRT.