Data-driven analysis of whole-brain intrinsic connectivity in patients with chronic low back pain undergoing osteopathic manipulative treatment.
Neuroimage Clin
; 43: 103659, 2024.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39208480
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Chronic Low Back Pain (cLBP) poses a significant health challenge, leading to functional disability and reduced quality of life. Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) is emerging as a therapeutic option for cLBP, but the brain mechanisms underlying its analgesic effect remain unclear. MATERIALS ANDMETHODS:
Thirty cLBP patients were randomly exposed to either four weekly sessions of OMT (N=16) or Sham treatment (N=14). Resting-state Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-MRI) scans and pain perception questionnaires were collected before and after treatment. A voxel-wise, rs-fMRI data-driven analysis was conducted to identify changes in the intrinsic functional connectivity across the whole brain that were associated with the OMT. Spearman's correlations were used to test for the association between changes in intrinsic connectivity and individual reports of pain perception.RESULTS:
Compared to the Sham group, participants who received OMT showed significant alterations in the functional connectivity of several regions belonging to the pain matrix. Specifically, OMT was associated with decreased connectivity of a parietal cluster that includes the somatosensory cortex and an increase of connectivity of the right anterior insula and ventral and dorsal anterolateral prefrontal areas. Crucially, the change in connectivity strength observed in the ventral anterolateral prefrontal cortex, a putative region of the affective-reappraisive layer of the pain matrix, correlates with the reduction in pain perception caused by the OMT.CONCLUSIONS:
This study offers insights into the brain mechanisms underlying the analgesic effect of OMT. Our findings support a link between OMT-driven functional cortical architecture alterations and improved clinical outcomes.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Brain
/
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
/
Low Back Pain
/
Manipulation, Osteopathic
/
Chronic Pain
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
NeuroImage. Clinical
/
Neuroimage Clin
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Italy
Country of publication:
Netherlands