Pain severity predicts depressive symptoms over and above individual illnesses and multimorbidity in older adults

BMC Psychiatry

Research Article

Michael Nicholas¹  Patricia Arean²  Patrick J. Raue²  Helen Correia³  Louise Sharpe⁴  Sarah McDonald⁵  Tanya Meade⁶ 

[1] Pain Management Research Institute, University of Sydney at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia;Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Division of Population Health, AIMS Centre University of Washington, Seattle, USA;School of Psychology, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia;School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia;School of Social Sciences and Psychology, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia;School of Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;

关键词: Depression;    Chronic illness;    Pain;    Multi-morbidity;    Older adults;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12888-017-1334-y

 received in 2016-08-09, accepted in 2017-04-25,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMulti-morbidity in older adults is commonly associated with depressed mood. Similarly, subjective reports of pain are also associated with both physical illness and increased depressive symptoms. However, whether pain independently contributes to the experience of depression in older people with multi-morbidity has not been studied.MethodsIn this study, participants were 1281 consecutive older adults presenting to one of 19 primary care services in Australia (recruitment rate = 75%). Participants were asked to indicate the presence of a number of common chronic illnesses, to rate their current pain severity and to complete the Geriatric Depression Scale.ResultsResults confirmed that the number of medical illnesses reported was strongly associated with depressive symptoms. Twenty-six percent of participants with multi-morbidity scored in the clinical range for depressive symptoms in comparison to 15% of participants with no illnesses or a single illness. In regression analyses, the presence of chronic pain (t = 5.969, p < 0.0005), diabetes (t = 4.309, p < 0.0005), respiratory (t = 3.720, p < 0.0005) or neurological illness (t = 2.701, p = 0.007) were all independent contributors to depressive symptoms. Even when controlling for each individual illness, and the overall number of illnesses (t = 2.207, p = 0.028), pain severity remained an independent predictor of depressed mood (F change = 28.866, p < 0.0005, t = 5.373, p < 0.0005).ConclusionsPhysicians should consider screening for mood problems amongst those with multi-morbidity, particularly those who experience pain.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017