Chronic Pain Following Mental Disorders

This is the fourth in a series of posts looking at some of the data from a study of chronic medical conditions following onset of a mental disorder (see citation below).

In this post I wanted to highlight the association of mental disorders with chronic pain conditions.

Onset of several anxiety disorders (OCD, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia and PTSD) showed increased rates of later chronic pain by 80-110%.

Bulimia nervosa and mood disorders also showed later higher rates of chronic pain disorder.

Anxiety and mood disorders are commonly accompanied by significant physical symptoms including headaches and abdominal discomfort. Whether these features explain the association is unclear.

A take home message from this study is the need to carefully assess for mental disorder comorbidity in clinical populations with pain disorder. Additionally, use of narcotic analgesics is pain with comorbid mental disorders needs careful assessment and monitoring.

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Scott KM, Lim C, Al-Hamzawi A, Alonso J, Bruffaerts R, Caldas-de-Almeida JM, Florescu S, de Girolamo G, Hu C, de Jonge P, Kawakami N, Medina-Mora ME, Moskalewicz J, Navarro-Mateu F, O'Neill S, Piazza M, Posada-Villa J, Torres Y, & Kessler RC (2015). Association of Mental Disorders With Subsequent Chronic Physical Conditions: World Mental Health Surveys From 17 Countries. JAMA psychiatry, 1-9 PMID: 26719969