Author: Lane RD, Waldstein SR, Critchley HD, Derbyshire SW, Drossman DA, Wager TD, Schneiderman N, Chesney MA, Jennings JR, Lovallo WR, Rose RM, Thayer JF, Cameron OG.
Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry (R.D.L.), University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona; Department of Psychology (S.R.W.), University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, Baltimore VA Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland; Brighton and Sussex Medical School (H.D.C.), Brighton, UK; School of Psychology (S.W.G.D.), University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK; Department of Medicine (D.A.D.), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Department of Psychology (T.D.W.), Columbia University, New York, New York; Department of Psychology (N.S.), University of Miami, Miami, Florida; Department of Medicine (M.A.C.), University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland; Department of Psychiatry (J.R.J.), University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Behavioral Sciences Laboratories (W.R.L.); VA Medical Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Mind-Brain-Body and Health Initiative (R.M.R.), Galveston, Texas; Department of Psychology (J.F.T.), The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, and The Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany; and the Department of Psychiatry (O.G.C.), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Conference/Journal: Psychosom Med
Date published: 2009 Feb 5
Other:
Word Count: 211
During the second half of the last century, biopsychosocial research in psychosomatic medicine largely ignored the brain. Neuroscience has started to make a comeback in psychosomatic medicine research and promises to advance the field in important ways. In this paper we briefly review select brain imaging research findings in psychosomatic medicine in four key areas: cardiovascular regulation, visceral pain in the context of functional gastrointestinal disorders, acute and chronic somatic pain and placebo. In each area, there is a growing literature that is beginning to define a network of brain areas that participate in the functions in question. Evidence to date suggests that cortical and subcortical areas that are involved in emotion and emotion regulation play an important role in each domain. Neuroscientific research is therefore validating findings from previous psychosomatic research and has the potential to extend knowledge by delineating the biological mechanisms that link mind and body more completely and with greater specificity. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this work for how research in psychosomatic medicine is conducted, the ways in which neuroscientific advances can lead to new clinical applications in psychosomatic contexts, the implications of this work for the field of medicine more generally, and the priorities for research in the next 5 to 10 years.