Chronic pain from alcohol withdrawal may be permanent. A new study found that long-term heavy drinking raises the chance of developing chronic pain. The pain tied to alcohol withdrawal may not go away. The risk is greater in females.
Summary: A new study shows alcohol may raise the chances of developing chronic pain. It found that long-term alcohol abuse may even cause permanent chronic pain. This risk is higher in females.
Chronic pain is one of the most common complaints today. Yet science still struggles to understand its cause. It clearly has many causes, which makes it hard to pin down. And because its causes differ, it is also hard to treat.
Studies show that more than 20% of US adults experience chronic pain. About 7-8% have high-impact pain. These people are also more likely to abuse medicines, opioids or even alcohol.
Alcohol may bring some short-term relief. But a new study shows that over time it may make things much worse, or even make chronic pain permanent.
The risk of chronic pain after stopping alcohol depends on how often and how much a person drinks. People who drink heavily for a long time are much more likely to develop chronic pain.
These findings matter because alcohol use disorder (AUD) is not rare among US adults. Studies show more than 10% of US adults abuse alcohol. In the US, about 29 million adults are living with alcohol use disorder. Easy-to-reach options like alcohol addiction treatment online may play a key role. They can help manage this common problem and cut its long-term harm.
This new study, published in Pharmacological Research, was done in rats. Researchers split the rats into three groups. The first group drank moderate amounts of alcohol for 5 weeks. When the alcohol stopped, these rats showed high pain sensitivity, called heightened allodynia, for five days.
Things were worse in the second group, which got more alcohol. These rats showed heightened pain sensitivity for several days. There was one more interesting finding: a difference between the sexes. Female rats took almost twice as long as male rats to recover from this pain sensitivity, or allodynia.
Things were very different for the rats given more alcohol for longer. These rats showed no sign of recovery even after 26 days without alcohol. Researchers say 26 days in their rat model equals 30 months in humans. So heavy drinking over a long time seems to cause permanent changes in the body that lead to permanent chronic pain.
To find the cause of these lasting changes, researchers looked at the dorsal root ganglia (nerve clusters near the spine) of heavy-drinking rats. Long-term heavy drinking had cut levels of the body’s own cannabis-like chemical 2-AG there for good. So researchers think treatment aimed at 2-AG may be one way to manage this pain sensitivity.
The researchers also found changed levels of eicosanoids, a type of immune signal. The changes showed up mostly in the nerve clusters of female rats. That explains why males and females differed.
So researchers say the next step is clear. They want to see if drugs that bring 2-AG back to normal can prevent or reverse the pain sensitivity from drinking. They also want to see how males and females respond to treatment.
In short, this study found that long-term drinking, above all at higher doses, may cause permanent changes in the nervous system that lead to lasting pain. This risk is much greater in females than in males.
AUD is not rare in the US. So it may be one of the main reasons reports of chronic pain are rising. Understanding what drives chronic pain in different groups is key to finding safe treatments that work.
Frequently asked questions
Can alcohol make chronic pain worse?
Yes. Alcohol may bring some short-term relief. But over time it can make chronic pain much worse or even permanent. The risk depends on how often and how much a person drinks. People who drink heavily for a long time are much more likely to develop chronic pain after they stop. People with chronic pain are also more likely to misuse alcohol.
Does alcohol withdrawal cause pain?
In this study, it did. Rats that drank moderate amounts for five weeks were extra sensitive to pain, called allodynia, for five days after the alcohol stopped. Rats given more alcohol stayed sensitive for several days. Rats that drank heavily for longer showed no sign of getting better after 26 days without alcohol. The researchers say that equals about 30 months in humans.
Can you reverse years of heavy drinking?
Long-term heavy drinking may leave lasting changes that cause pain. The study found it cut levels of 2-AG for good. This is one of the body’s own cannabis-like chemicals. The drop showed up in nerve clusters called the dorsal root ganglia. Next, researchers want to test whether medicines that bring 2-AG back to normal can prevent or reverse this pain.
Are women more at risk of chronic pain from alcohol?
In this study, yes. Female rats took almost twice as long as male rats to get over pain sensitivity from alcohol. The researchers tied this to changed levels of eicosanoids, a type of immune signal, in the nerve clusters of the female rats. They concluded that the risk of lasting pain from heavy drinking is much greater in females.
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Source:
Borgonetti, V., Vozella, V., Ware, T., Cruz, B., Bullard, R., Cravatt, B. F., Galeotti, N., & Roberto, M. (2024). Excessive alcohol intake produces persistent mechanical allodynia and dysregulates the endocannabinoid system in the lumbar dorsal root ganglia of genetically-selected Marchigian Sardinian alcohol-preferring rats. Pharmacological Research, 209, 107462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phrs.2024.107462