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Find us again! Moodletter provides information, hope and help to people living with depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder and those who care for them. ©2006-2011 Deborah Wiig
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Depression can cause physical pain |
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“I’m not just depressed,” Barbara told her doctor. “I’m also having headaches, muscle pain and stomach aches. I hurt all over.” Depression and pain often occur together. And it’s not just “all in your head,” according to a recent study led by University of Oxford researchers. It’s also a result of what’s going on in the pathways of your brain. The study, which used brain imaging to see how healthy volunteers responded to pain while feeling low, found that inducing depressed mood disrupted a portion of the participants' neurocircuitry that regulates emotion, which caused them to find pain more unpleasant. Authors Dr. Chantal Berna and colleagues speculate that being in a sad state of mind disables one's ability to regulate the negative emotion associated with feeling pain. Rather than merely being a consequence of having pain, depressed mood may drive pain and cause it to feel worse.
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Page updated September 1, 2010 |
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Many people who are suffering from depression and experiencing physical pain, don’t know the two may be connected, so they don’t discuss their physical symptoms with their doctor.