A recent study published in Science Translational Medicine indicates that inflammation caused by neutrophils (type of white blood cell (leukocytes) that act as your immune system’s first line of defense. There are three types of white blood cells: granulocytes, lymphocytes and monocytes) may protect against chronic pain in people with acute back pain. Drugs like steroids or NSAIDs (Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, like Aspirin, Naproxen) which are commonly used to treat acute pain, may harm patients in the long term.
Researchers analyzed immune cells from 98 patients with low back pain and found that patients whose pain had resolved at 3 months exhibited upregulation (the process of increasing the response to a stimulus) of neutrophil-dependent inflammatory pathways during the acute phase. Using NSAIDs to treat acute back pain was associated with a 1.76-fold increased risk of developing chronic back pain.
Preserving neutrophil activation could help reduce the risk of chronic pain. Hence, treatments with NSAIDs and steroids in the early phase of acute pain could be detrimental.
(Heather Wood – Wood, H. Anti-inflammatory drugs could cause chronic pain. Nat Rev Neurol 18, 382 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-022-00676-z)
Original article: Parisien, M. et al. Acute inflammatory response via neutrophil activation protects against the development of chronic pain. Sci. Transl. Med. https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.abj9954 (2022)
