Infant Pain Impacting Maturity

"There is a critical window very early in life where pain appears to have long-lasting impact."
"The vast changes going on at that time in the developing spinal cord and brain could explain why a noxious event then can have long-term effects."
Nikita Burke, PhD, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hotchkiss Brain Institute

Nikita Burke, PhD, has recently been awarded the Alberta Innovates Postdoctoral Scholarship for her work on pain research. Photo courtesy Alberta Innovates

"[Infants] do experience pain and some [health and medical] procedures likely have profound impacts later on in life."
Tuan Trang, assistant professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary

The myth that medical scientists have long subscribed to that premature babies haven't developed sufficiently to become aware of pain impacting on them, appears to have been questioned as a result of parents taking notice that their children who were premature demonstrated more occasions related to pain than their non-preemie siblings.

Scientists know the immune cells -- "Microglia" -- are instrumental in the body's development, repair and protection of the central nervous system. How microglia react in responding to particular kinds of pain is not yet identified, representing a vital portion of the study of communication between the immune and nervous systems, and key to the development of chronic pain.

One in every dozen babies born in Canada is premature, according to the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation; the statistic is one in every ten babies born worldwide. Alberta has the distinction of being among the highest pre-term birthrate zones in all of Canada, where 4,700 babies are born prematurely every year.

So perhaps it is fitting that Calgary scientists have been studying the long-term impact of infant pain, matching the manner in which it may be linked to mental health issues and problems with pain later in life, as babies mature into adults. Up until the mid-1980s, the medical community assumed that some newborns and preemies in particular, had nervous systems that were not yet completely developed, and as such no pain could be felt.

Medical procedures -- inclusive of major surgery -- were routinely performed without anesthesia on days-old babies. However, it is now well understood that babies do in fact feel pain, and added to this recognition is growing evidence that infection, trauma or stress experienced early in life can introduce "molecular memory", leading to a variety of problems linked to pain, from increased sensitivity to lower pain thresholds, chronic pain inflammatory diseases, and depression.