Depression linked to chronic physical pain

In 2020, the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) revised the definition of pain, changing the definition that had been used for the past 41 years to: Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or a similar experience.

From this we can see that pain is not only a physiological sensory problem, but also a complex psychological emotional expression.

Chronic pain lasts for a long time, is stubborn and difficult to cure, and some negative emotional factors gradually grow as a result, among which anxiety and depression are the most common. Today we will talk about the relationship between chronic pain and depression.

What is chronic pain? What are the symptoms?

The IASP defines chronic pain as pain that persists beyond normal tissue healing time (generally 1-3 months).

Chronic pain can lead to disorders in neurophysiological systems, cognitive functions, behavior, cultural and social abilities, and can be accompanied by sleep disorders, school dropouts, anxiety and depression in children and adolescents.

What is the connection between chronic pain and depression?

Chronic pain and depression are strongly associated, and various chronic pain symptoms in the body increase the likelihood of depression. Related studies have shown that patients with chronic pain symptoms have a tendency to be depressed, and as the number of patients with pain symptoms increases, the prevalence of depression will also increase.

Conversely, when the severity of depression increases, the severity of pain also increases. Although a strong correlation has been found between depression and pain, it is still unclear whether depression causes pain, but most scholars believe that pain may cause depression.

In addition, chronic pain and depression overlap in many risk factors. For example, genetic factors and environmental influences may be important causes of chronic pain and depression.

Why do you take antidepressants for body pain?

Studies have shown that chronic pain and depression may have common neurobiological mechanisms, and that the brain structures, shared neural circuits, and neurochemicals involved in both play an important role in the formation of pain and depression.

Antidepressants can affect the plasticity of the brain's reticular formation. Chronic pain may be caused by abnormal neuronal connections, so antidepressants can be used to treat chronic pain.

This is also why pain doctors prescribe some antidepressants to treat chronic pain.

I hope everyone

Friends with depression

Can be treated gently

❤

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Author: Bian Wenyu, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine

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