depression causes joint pain

ola · Silver Member Joined: 06 Mar 2000 Posts: 261

Although I know physical pain is a common, but often ignored, I cannot pretend there is everything fine any more. What worries me, beside joint pain I already mention, I have symptom of depression. I have heard pain severity is a strong predictor of the degree of depression and health-related quality of life. Now I want to hear what you could tell me about my condition, is there any connection between depression and joint pain. Is there some possible treatment for this?

blaisdell · Newbie Joined: 30 May 2005 Posts: 17

I guess the info you have heard is from findings in a newly published study. Two-thirds of the depressed patients beginning antidepressant treatment in the study reported being in physical pain. The most commonly cited symptoms were frequent headaches, back pain, joint pain, and abdominal pain. Physical symptoms persisted longer than depression symptoms in more than a third of the patients that is what is found in these studies. This is leading the researchers to conclude that pain may serve as a barometer for gauging the effectiveness of depression treatment. It is important to recognize that physical symptoms like your joint pain can be part of the picture of depression. I can tell you although physical symptoms may be related to or aggravated by the depression, they can linger longer than the emotional symptoms. At three months, patients who reported being in severe pain were four times as likely as those who did not report pain to have a poor response to antidepressant treatment. That is why I could tell you for sure that physical symptoms often predominate and may distract attention from comorbid depressive symptoms. The new emphasis on pain provides an opportunity for better recognizing and understanding the interaction between depression and join or any other pain.

depression causes joint pain

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