Low Mood and Negative Thoughts Amplify Pain in The Brain

Pain and mood have a complicated relationship. Numerous studies show that low mood intensifies the experience of pain. Likewise, pain disorders develop more commonly in people with a history of depression, trauma, or overwhelming stress. This is because the brain processes pain as both a physical and emotional experience; multiple regions in the brain communicate with each other to determine the pain level you feel.

Functional brain MRI allows researchers to measure what parts of the brain are active during specific activities. We can now see how brain regions associated with pain and mood interact with each other and affect the pain level perceived.

How Negative Thinking and Low Mood Increase Your Pain

Research shows that negative thoughts and low mood dial up the pain level you feel. A negative mood escalates pain. This is why working on healthy thought patterns is an important piece of chronic pain management.

A study using functional brain MRI looked more closely at this relationship. The researchers investigated brain activity when a pain stimulus is associated with a regular mood versus a low mood. They found that in a low mood state, the brain produces more negative thoughts and catastrophic, worst-case scenario thoughts. A sad mood not only increased the frequency of negative thoughts, but also intensified the severity of the pain!

On brain imaging, a lower mood increased the brain MRI signals in pain sensory areas and in brain regions involved in emotional processing more intensely than the regular mood group. The part of the brain that modulates or decreases pain had less activity in the low mood group. Again, the presence of low mood made the pain feel worse, and the MRI reflected this with its activity level.

Mood influences pain perception at a neural level. With functional MRI, we can actually see the brain turn-up the alarm signal, which increases the pain level.

What You Can Do

Therapies that work on healthy thought patterns can modify these processes and keep the pain dial turned down. Mindfulness practice and cognitive behavioral therapy to reduce cognitive distortions are examples. Cognitive distortions are biased, exaggerated negative thinking that often occurs below our awareness. For example, with overgeneralization, you make a broad conclusion about yourself based on a single event. If you failed one test, you believe you will fail every test in the future. Both therapies make you aware of unhealthy thinking patterns, so you can reduce excessive negative thinking, which positively impacts your pain experience.

Bottom Line

A low mood and excessive negative thoughts increase both the perception and impact of pain. Addressing negative thinking patterns is an effective step toward reducing pain signals and suffering from chronic pain.

Learn more about mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy for pain in my book, Sunbreak: Healing the Pain No One Can Explain.