Persistent alcohol consumption increases pain sensitivity through two distinct biochemical processes, one driven by alcohol intake and the other by alcohol withdrawal.
According to a recent study, pain is a common reason for a patient suffering from alcohol dependency as well as a reason for people being driven to drink again.
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Alcohol use disorder (AUD) encompasses the conditions commonly called alcohol abuse, alcohol dependency and alcohol addiction. AUD triggers the development of numerous chronic diseases including heart disease, stroke, liver disease and cancers.
One of the long-term impacts of alcohol consumption is pain. More than half of people with AUD experience persistent pain of different type. This includes alcoholic neuropathy, nerve damage that causes chronic pain and the other symptoms. AUD is associated with changes the way brain processes pain signals, as well as changes on how immune system activation occurs. The pain can cause an increase in alcohol consumption. When people with AUD try to withdraw the consumption of alcohol, they experience allodynia which is a harmless stimulus perceived as being painful.
The study compared three groups of adult mice: animals dependent on alcohol, animals that consume alcohol in limited quantity and those who have never taken alcohol.
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Meanwhile, the dependent mice experienced allodynia during alcohol withdrawal and subsequent alcohol consumption have significantly decreased in pain sensitivity. Half of the mice dependent on alcohol exhibited signs of increased pain sensitivity during alcohol withdrawal.
They measured the level of an inflammatory protein in the animals and discovered that inflammation pathways are elevated in both dependent and non-dependent animals, specific molecules increased in dependent mice. This indicates that different molecular mechanisms drive two types of pain. This suggests that inflammatory proteins may be used to combat alcohol-related pain.
Moreover, the study unveils new potential molecular targets that can be used to distinguish these types of pain and the potentiality that can be used for the development of therapies in future.