OpenPain: Accumbens Chronic Pain Signature
OpenPain Project: Loss of nucleus accumbens low-frequency fluctuations is a signature of chronic pain (Yale)
T1-weighted MRI and resting-state fMRI of 40 subacute back pain patients, 28 chronic low back pain patients and 30 healthy controls from Yale, with about one-year follow-up scans of a subset, shared through the OpenPain Project.
Overview
This OpenPain Project entry holds the Yale cohort that Makary and colleagues used to study the nucleus accumbens in back pain. People with recent-onset (subacute) low back pain, people with chronic low back pain and pain-free controls were scanned once, and the subacute patients and controls were invited back for a second visit about a year later. The study found a smaller left accumbens volume in patients that was already present before pain became chronic, and a loss of slow-5 (0.01 to 0.027 Hz) resting-state power in the accumbens once pain was chronic. The paper deposited the demographic, clinical and imaging data from both visits in the OpenPain repository on 26 March 2020, together with the analysis code.
Composition
The study recruited 98 adults: 40 with subacute back pain (16 women), 28 with chronic low back pain (17 women) and 30 controls (14 women), with mean ages around 31 to 32 years per group. Subacute patients had pain of at least 20/100 for 6 to 16 weeks after a pain-free year; chronic patients had pain of at least 30/100 for a year or more. At follow-up, after a median of about 59 weeks, 35 subacute patients returned and 26 of them were scanned again, as were 14 of the controls. Returning patients were labelled persistent (16) or recovered (19) by a 30% drop in pain. Pain, mood and anxiety questionnaires were collected at each visit.
Acquisition
All scans were acquired on a Siemens 3T Trio with a 32-channel head coil. Each session had a 1 mm MPRAGE T1-weighted scan (TR 1900 ms, TE 2.52 ms, 176 slices) and two 6-minute resting-state fMRI runs with 2 mm isotropic voxels, TR 1000 ms and an acceleration factor of 4. Data were collected between July 2014 and April 2019.
Known limitations
Chronic patients have no follow-up visit, and fewer than half of the controls were rescanned. Pain levels at entry were low compared with many clinical studies. The paper reports group means and sex counts but no overall age range. The OpenPain portal requires registration, so the deposited files and their format were not checked for this entry.
Cohort
Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 98 subjects.
Sex
- Female 47 100%
Covers 47 of 98 subjects.
Contrast combinations
How many subjects have exactly each set of contrasts.
| T1w | bold | Subjects with exactly this set |
|---|---|---|
98 |
Contrast / sequence
subjects, values can overlap
- T1-weighted 98 100%
- BOLD fMRI 98 100%
Condition
subjects, values can overlap
- Low back pain 68 69%
- Healthy control 30 31%
Scanner vendor
subjects
- Siemens Healthineers 98 100%
Field strength
subjects
- 3 T 98 100%
Country
subjects
- United States 98 100%
License and access
Our reading of the license, not legal advice. Before you use the data, read the original license and confirm that your use is allowed. We take no responsibility for how you use a dataset. Full disclaimer
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OpenPain Data Use Agreement
Access after registering on the OpenPain site and accepting the agreement online. Use is limited to scientific investigation, teaching or planning clinical research. Data may not be disclosed beyond those uses, everyone who uses or receives them must follow the agreement, re-identification is forbidden and publications must acknowledge the OpenPain Project and its funders.
What you can do
- Conditional
- Not stated
- Not stated
- Not stated
- Conditional
What you can share
- Conditional
- Not stated
- Share trained models Not stated
What you must do
- Yes
- Share alike No
- Yes
- Conditional
- Manuscript review No
- Release code No
- No
- Delete after use No
Limits
- Yes
- No
Citation
Makary MM, Polosecki P, Cecchi GA, DeAraujo IE, Barron DS, Constable TR, Whang PG, Thomas DA, Mowafi H, Small DM, Geha P. Loss of nucleus accumbens low-frequency fluctuations is a signature of chronic pain. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 117(18):10015-10023 (2020).
All numbers
Every number on this page, as stored in stats.csv, with its source.
| Measure | Breakdown | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects | total Sum of the disjoint recruited groups: 40 SBP, 28 CLBP and 30 healthy controls | 98 | makary2020 Materials and Methods, Participants |
| Subjects | condition=low_back_pain 40 subacute back pain (pain for 6 to 16 weeks) plus 28 chronic low back pain (pain for at least 1 year) | 68 | makary2020 Materials and Methods, Participants |
| Subjects | condition=healthy | 30 | makary2020 Materials and Methods, Participants |
| Subjects | sex=female Sum of females per group: 16 SBP, 17 CLBP, 14 healthy controls | 47 | makary2020-si Table S1 |
| Subjects | condition=low_back_pain;sex=female 16 SBP and 17 CLBP females | 33 | makary2020-si Table S1 |
| Subjects | condition=healthy;sex=female | 14 | makary2020-si Table S1 |
| Subjects | country=US Collected at Yale University, New Haven, July 2014 to April 2019 | 98 | makary2020 Materials and Methods, Participants |
| Subjects | contrast=T1w T1w MPRAGE and two resting-state fMRI runs per participant | 98 | makary2020 Materials and Methods, Scanning Parameters |
| Subjects | contrast=bold T1w MPRAGE and two resting-state fMRI runs per participant | 98 | makary2020 Materials and Methods, Scanning Parameters |
| Subjects | contrast_set=bold+T1w T1w MPRAGE and two resting-state fMRI runs per participant | 98 | makary2020 Materials and Methods, Scanning Parameters |
| Subjects | field_strength=3 | 98 | makary2020 Materials and Methods, Scanning Parameters |
| Subjects | vendor=siemens Siemens 3.0 T Trio with a 32-channel head coil | 98 | makary2020 Materials and Methods, Scanning Parameters |
| Mean age | condition=healthy Mean ± SEM 31.1 ± 2.0 years | 31.1 | makary2020 Materials and Methods, Participants |
Sources
The keys used in the table above.
- makary2020 Makary et al. 2020, PNAS 117(18):10015-10023 paper
- makary2020-si Makary et al. 2020, PNAS, SI Appendix paper