Depression and Pain Research Note
By Reader's Digest Editors
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Depression and chronic pain are clearly intertwined. To start, both conditions involve some of the same nerve pathways in the brain. No surprise then that two out of three people with depression also have chronic pain, ranging from back pain and headaches to digestive problems and body-wide discomforts. Likewise, people with chronic pain are three times more likely to develop depression or anxiety problems than those without chronic pain. One clue that depression is the root cause of the pain: Aches aren’t eased by pain relievers. More proof of the interconnection: Antidepressants, as well as some anxiety medications, have been shown to lift low moods and ease pain.
Fast Facts:- Depression makes pain feel worse by changing the way your brain interprets pain signals from your body.
- That’s one reason mind-body therapies like counseling, muscle relaxation, meditation, guided imagery and hypnotherapy help ease pain.
- The anti-seizure drug gabapentin (Neurontin) may also help. It mutes the effects of substance P, a brain chemical involved in mood and pain.
- One mysterious and tough-to-treat type of body wide pain, called somatoform disorder, may be caused by depression that’s converted itself into physical symptoms.
- Another pain condition, fibromyalgia, may also be the result of brain changes that increase sensitivity to mood changes and to unpleasant physical sensations.
Depression and Chronic Back Pain
spine-health.com — “Chronic pain medications, chronic back pain, clinical depression and their interrelationship.” View full resource at spine-health.com
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