The Link Between Depression and Chronic Pain: Understanding the Connection

Although depression is a mental illness, it can have physical symptoms, including chronic pain. According to Harvard Health Publications (HHP), depression patients have three times the average risk for chronic pain.

Significance

• Connections between chronic pain and depression may have particular importance for clinical research on depression. According to HHP, up to 60 percent of unreported depression cases could be diagnosed if pain patients were screened for depression.

Diagnosis

• Chronic pain can be related to depression, but it is important see a physician to determine its cause. Fibromyalgia, for example, is a disorder of unknown origin causing chronic muscle pain and, sometimes, depression. While chronic pain can result in symptoms of depression, depression itself can result in pain.

Depression and Perception of Pain

• Because being depressed can heighten the perception of pain, treating the depression with mental health counseling and anti-depressants may alleviate the chronic pain that accompanies it.

Treatment

• A variety of treatment techniques, including hypnosis and anti-inflammatory drugs, may be used to treat chronic pain and depression together.

Pain, Depression and the Brain

• The neurotransmitters norepinephrine and serotonin control both mood and pain, which also share a pathway in the limbic system (the emotional region of the brain).