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Apparent Effects of Opioid Use on Neural Responses to Reward in Chronic Pain.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Martucci, KT; MacNiven, KH; Borg, N; Knutson, B; Mackey, SC
Published in: Sci Rep
July 3, 2019

Neural responses to incentives are altered in chronic pain and by opioid use. To understand how opioid use modulates the neural response to reward/value in chronic pain, we compared brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses to a monetary incentive delay (MID) task in patients with fibromyalgia taking opioids (N = 17), patients with fibromyalgia not taking opioids (N = 17), and healthy controls (N = 15). Both groups of patients with fibromyalgia taking and not taking opioids had similar levels of pain, psychological measures, and clinical symptoms. Neural responses in the nucleus accumbens to anticipated reward and non-loss outcomes did not differ from healthy controls in either fibromyalgia group. However, neural responses in the medial prefrontal cortex differed, such that patients with fibromyalgia not taking opioids demonstrated significantly altered responses to anticipated rewards and non-loss outcomes compared to healthy controls, but patients with fibromyalgia taking opioids did not. Despite limitations including the use of additional non-opioid medications by fibromyalgia patients taking opioids, these preliminary findings suggest relatively "normalized" neural responses to monetary incentives in chronic pain patients who take opioids versus those who do not.

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Published In

Sci Rep

DOI

EISSN

2045-2322

Publication Date

July 3, 2019

Volume

9

Issue

1

Start / End Page

9633

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Prefrontal Cortex
  • Opioid-Related Disorders
  • Neural Pathways
  • Motivation
  • Humans
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Female
  • Chronic Pain
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Brain Mapping
 

Citation

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Martucci, K. T., MacNiven, K. H., Borg, N., Knutson, B., & Mackey, S. C. (2019). Apparent Effects of Opioid Use on Neural Responses to Reward in Chronic Pain. Sci Rep, 9(1), 9633. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-45961-y
Martucci, Katherine T., Kelly H. MacNiven, Nicholas Borg, Brian Knutson, and Sean C. Mackey. “Apparent Effects of Opioid Use on Neural Responses to Reward in Chronic Pain.Sci Rep 9, no. 1 (July 3, 2019): 9633. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-45961-y.
Martucci KT, MacNiven KH, Borg N, Knutson B, Mackey SC. Apparent Effects of Opioid Use on Neural Responses to Reward in Chronic Pain. Sci Rep. 2019 Jul 3;9(1):9633.
Martucci, Katherine T., et al. “Apparent Effects of Opioid Use on Neural Responses to Reward in Chronic Pain.Sci Rep, vol. 9, no. 1, July 2019, p. 9633. Pubmed, doi:10.1038/s41598-019-45961-y.
Martucci KT, MacNiven KH, Borg N, Knutson B, Mackey SC. Apparent Effects of Opioid Use on Neural Responses to Reward in Chronic Pain. Sci Rep. 2019 Jul 3;9(1):9633.

Published In

Sci Rep

DOI

EISSN

2045-2322

Publication Date

July 3, 2019

Volume

9

Issue

1

Start / End Page

9633

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Prefrontal Cortex
  • Opioid-Related Disorders
  • Neural Pathways
  • Motivation
  • Humans
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Female
  • Chronic Pain
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Brain Mapping