Chronic pain and psychiatric disorders often co-occur, suggesting common neuronal mechanisms underlying these pathological states, yet the mechanisms are still unclear. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is a limbic structure implicated in pain-induced aversive motivation. In spared nerve injury model mice of chronic pain, we found increased inhibitory inputs onto BNST neurons projecting to the lateral hypothalamus (LH). Chemogenetic manipulation demonstrated that sustained suppression of LH-projecting BNST neurons was causally involved in chronic pain-induced anxiety-like behaviors. As a possible mechanism of the increased inhibitory inputs, whole-cell patch clamp recordings revealed an enhanced excitability of genetically identified BNST neurons which make inhibitory synapses onto LH-projecting BNST neurons. Chemogenetic inhibition of these identified BNST neurons attenuated increased inhibitory inputs to the LH-projecting BNST neurons and ameliorated anxiety-like behaviors in the chronic pain model mice. Collectively, our present findings suggest the neuronal plasticity in the BNST that could underlie chronic pain-induced maladaptive anxiety.