Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23685185›Full record

SynthesisThe journal of pain2013

Structural brain anomalies and chronic pain: a quantitative meta-analysis of gray matter volume.

Rachel F Smallwood, Angela R Laird, Amy E Ramage, Amy L Parkinson, Jeffrey Lewis, Daniel J Clauw, David A Williams, Tobias Schmidt-Wilcke, Michael J Farrell, Simon B Eickhoff and 1 more

Registry-linked trialAbstract readMeta-AnalysisReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in The journal of pain, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07252596 (Pain Neuroscience Education's Effect on Memory and Pain Drawings), which is not on this map. Cited by 133 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
133citing papers in PubMed, 6 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT07252596 nanot yet recruitingnot on this mapstarted 2025, after this paper: background citation

Pain Neuroscience Education's Effect on Memory and Pain Drawings: An Exploratory Study

TypeinterventionalSponsorEvidence In MotionRan2025 to 2026Enrolled50ConditionsChronic PainArmsPain Neuroscience Education (PNE)
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

133 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  17. Nociplastic pain: an introduction.The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association · 2025
    Article
  18. Article
  19. Fibromyalgia in the Era of Brain PET/CT Imaging.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025
    Review
  20. Article

73 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Rachel F SmallwoodJoint Program in Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio and University of Texas San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
Angela R Laird
Amy E Ramage
Amy L Parkinson
Jeffrey Lewis
Daniel J Clauw
David A Williams
Tobias Schmidt-Wilcke
Michael J Farrell
Simon B Eickhoff
Donald A Robin

Funding

Meta-anaylsis in human brain mappingR01MH074457 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCIENCE CENTER · PI FOX, PETER THORNTON · 2006 to 2024
$10.5M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH074457NIMH NIH HHS R01-MH074457
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

unlabelledThe diversity of chronic pain syndromes and the methods employed to study them make integrating experimental findings challenging. This study performed coordinate-based meta-analyses using voxel-based morphometry imaging results to examine gray matter volume (GMV) differences between chronic pain patients and healthy controls. There were 12 clusters where GMV was decreased in patients compared with controls, including many regions thought to be part of the "pain matrix" of regions involved in pain perception, but also including many other regions that are not commonly regarded as pain-processing areas. The right hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus were the only regions noted to have increased GMV in patients. Functional characterizations were implemented using the BrainMap database to determine which behavioral domains were significantly represented in these regions. The most common behavioral domains associated with these regions were cognitive, affective, and perceptual domains. Because many of these regions are not classically connected with pain and because there was such significance in functionality outside of perception, it is proposed that many of these regions are related to the constellation of comorbidities of chronic pain, such as fatigue and cognitive and emotional impairments. Further research into the mechanisms of GMV changes could provide a perspective on these findings. PERSPECTIVE: Quantitative meta-analyses revealed structural differences between brains of individuals with chronic pain and healthy controls. These differences may be related to comorbidities of chronic pain.

Indexed as

BrainChronic PainHumans

Identifiers

PMID23685185
PMCPMC4827858

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.