The Immune-Suppressive Effects of PainImmune suppression, also known as immunosuppression or immunocompromise, means your immune system isn't working properly. This includes any or all of the defences that make up your immune system - particularly the white cells in our bloodstream, along with our spleen and lymph nodes.Jul 5, 2017
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Immune System Suppression | Patient
Types
The immune system can be weakened or suppressed by certain cancers, UV radiation, special drugs for organ transplants, and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. When the immune system is not functioning properly, we are at risk to develop cancer as well as infections.
Introduction
The immune-suppressive effects of painful experiences have been studied in both humans and animals for many years. Experimental pain has been induced by such means as electric shock and surgery in animals, and humans undergoing surgery have been studied extensively. In general, results have shown such perturbations to suppress the immune functions that are assessed.1,2 The exclusive contribution of the pain per se to these findings has only recently become a focus of study. If pain mechanisms were shown to mediate the observed immunosuppressive effects of experiences such as recovery from injury or undergoing surgery, then adequate pain management would become a vital adjunct to the overall care of such individuals.
The importance of such an avenue of study relates to the crucial role played by the immune system in maintaining health and resisting infection and disease.3 In the latter case, animal studies provide direct evidence that natural killer (NK) cells play a key role in controlling metastatic processes4,5 as well as support for the hypothesis that the suppressed NK cell activity following surgery underlies surgery-induced metastatic promotion.1,6 Findings of human studies are corroborative; low NK activity during the perioperative period is associated with higher rates of cancer recurrence and mortality in patients with breast,7 head and neck,8 lung,9 and colorectal cancers.10
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK6140/