ABOUT 40% of adults with chronic pain also have anxiety or depression, according to new research covering data from more than 50 countries.
The research team, including experts from Australia, looked at 376 studies comprising almost 350,000 people with chronic pain around the world.
Chronic or persistent pain affects an estimated 20-30% of the population, and it disproportionately affects women and people with disabilities.
The team found that among adults with chronic pain, 37% met diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder and 17% for generalised anxiety disorder, markedly higher than population norms (10% and 2% respectively), highlighting the prevalence of diagnosable conditions requiring targeted treatment.
Those most likely to have depression and anxiety were women, younger people, and people with certain types of chronic pain (called nociplastic pain) where there is no tissue damage, such as fibromyalgia and temporal mandibular disorder.
The team said systematically screening for mental health conditions in people with chronic pain is critical, as is making sure people receive equitable access to care and innovative treatment.
"Changes in chronic pain care are needed at the individual clinician and systems levels to address the co-occurrence of chronic pain and depression and anxiety," wrote the authors in JAMA Network Open.
"Not only are few treatments available for these comorbidities, but people with mental health comorbidities are frequently rejected from chronic pain clinics and excluded from clinical trials," they continued.
"For physicians treating individuals with chronic pain in primary care and specialty practice, systematic screening of depression and anxiety is critical, as is having a network of mental health referral sources when a positive screening result is detected.
"Short-term, cost-effective, and remotely delivered psychological treatments for chronic pain are becoming increasingly available and can be recommended to individuals with chronic pain," the authorsconcluded.
Read the paper HERE. KB
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