Pain In Infancy Increases Pain Sensitivity Later In Life

The July 28th issue of the journal Science reports that pain experienced by newborns (such as that from painful neonatal medical procedures such as circumcision) could increase their sensitivity to pain later on in life. Based on their experiments, researchers feel that painful experiences could change the baby's developing nervous system.

According to researcher Dr. Mary Ann Ruda of the National Institute of Health "our primary interest was in learning how the brain circuitry can be affected and altered as it responds to pain."

The researchers injected an irritant into the paws of newborn rats which caused swelling and pain for 5 days afterward. As adults, these same rats showed a much higher degree of pain sensitivity in the paws injected.

According to Ruda, the tested animals also "had more nerve ending and thus more means for pain information to be transmitted."

"If humans have a similar response to persistent pain during infancy as compared to the rats, it suggests that they would also have a greater response to pain later in life," Ruda said. "Ultimately we want to try and determine the mechanism for the growth of the nerve fibers---then we might be able to avoid creating these additional pain pathways in infants."

By way of commentary, your chiropractor realizes the importance of keeping developing newborn nervous systems free of the types of persistent pain responses outlined in this article so that proper growth, development and adaptation can occur. Having newborns checked for spinal subluxation is the best way to make sure they grow into healthy, fully functioning adults.