Our mental health is linked to several factors, which can be socio-environmental, cultural and psychological. However, one aspect that can directly affect our mood and is rarely mentioned is pain.

Especially when the pain ceases to be something specific and becomes chronic, affecting a person physically, emotionally and mentally, and can even cause depression.

Chronic pain is pain that lasts more than three months.

To diagnose the disorder we all know as depression, symptoms such as depressed mood, sleep disturbances, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating for at least two weeks must be identified, causing clinically significant distress or impaired social functioning.

If this disorder is not diagnosed and treated properly, it can lead to suicidal thoughts. And if it is associated with some kind of physical suffering, it can get worse.

According to anesthetist Joao Garcia, vice president of the ANCP (National Association for Palliative Care) and specialist in chronic pain, patients suffering from any kind of chronic pain quite often find the right treatment for it.

“Often a person suffering from pain and depression seeks treatment for only one of the problems, whether physical or mental,” explains the doctor.

Thus, he argues that it is necessary to treat general pain, including mental and associated pain. Otherwise, chronic pain, not properly treated, can lead to mental suffering, and thus one problem exacerbates another.

How does this affect your daily life?

A possible reason for the association between chronic pain and depression could be the fact that both conditions are linked to brain response. However, there are factors in a person’s daily life that can exacerbate these cases.

For Joao Garcia, the main loss is functionality. The specialist notes that when a patient feels pain, the ability to perform daily activities, such as work, going to the market, cleaning the house, physical activity, and much more, may be limited.

According to the Ministry of Health, there are about 12,000 suicides annually in Brazil and more than 1 million worldwide — Photo: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil

With these limitations, the patient may experience negative feelings and thoughts, and if the pain (physical and psychological) is not properly treated, there is a possibility that the problem may develop into anxiety and depression.

In addition, a person with chronic pain can often deprive himself of activities outside the home and socializing with friends because he suffers from pain. This isolation can also be a trigger for worsening disorders.

New guidelines for chronic pain management

Last month, the XIV Latin American Pain Congress formulated new guidelines for the management of chronic pain. The event found that chronic pain should be treated through various pain-related medical specialties, thus achieving improvement in all areas of the patient’s life as the disorder affects physical, cognitive, emotional, behavioral and psychological aspects.

This has already been demonstrated by a 2017 study conducted in partnership by a researcher from Jilin University in China and another from the University of Alabama in the US, which pointed to “chronic pain as a condition.” stress is one of the determinants of depression, and their coexistence tends to increase the severity of both disorders.”

Another 2020 article published in Revista Psicologia e Saúde by Brazilian scientists from USF (Universidade São Francisco) pointed out an association between depression symptoms and chronic pain in 80 women aged 31 to 82 with fibromyalgia and/or cancer (5).

Without proper treatment, psychiatric disorders can exacerbate chronic pain, and the opposite is true: pain can exacerbate problems such as depression, anxiety, panic disorders, and insomnia.

How to ask for help?

If you need to talk, CVV (Centro de Valorização da Vida) provides emotional support and suicide prevention voluntarily and free of charge to all people who want and need to talk, in complete secrecy by phone, email and chat 24 hours a day. . . . More information on the Center’s website.