Pain in the Developing Brain: Early Life Adversities that Affect the Development of Chronic Pain in Adolescence

Chronic pain is a public health epidemic with 20% of youth that undergo surgery or sustain a mild brain injury suffering from persisting pain. Chronic pain has limited effective treatment options and often arises from an unknown cause. However, I have demonstrated that early life adversities, such as adverse childhood experiences and high-fat high-sugar diets, can increase risk for chronic pain by increasing inflammation and immune activation, and that females exhibit greater pain responses than males. Interestingly, the underlying mechanisms driving the chronification of pain differed between males and females, necessitating further investigation into the sexual dimorphism of persistent pain.