Chronic pain is often accompanied by depression and anxiety. In an invited commentary published in JAMA Network Open, Kurt Kroenke, M.D., of Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine, discusses the relationship between pain, the most common symptom for which individuals visit a physician, and depression and anxiety, the two most prevalent mental health conditions worldwide. He highlights the importance of not neglecting psychological symptoms in patients experiencing pain.
Noting that successfully addressing depression and anxiety is associated with improvement in pain, he observes that treating pain may not improve depression and anxiety to the same degree but does not negate the benefit of identifying and treating both physical and psychological symptoms.
“Symptoms of the body and the mind are frequent fellow travelers,”
Kurt Kroenke, M.D., of Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine
“But patients seeing their primary care physician for a headache, back or muscle or leg pain or stomachache often neglect to mention the symptoms commonly associated with depression and anxiety that they are also experiencing such as fatigue, lack of motivation, nervousness and moodiness. And physicians don’t always ask about symptoms beyond the ones which brought the patient into the office.
“Un- or under-treated, these emotional symptoms can cause long-term suffering and impaired quality of life. If clinicians measure and monitor both physical and mental symptoms they will be more able and likely to treat them. But there is no blood pressure cuff, lab test or X-ray for symptoms. We don't have a way to measure symptoms other than from what the patient tells us, yet screening and diagnosis are crucial to improving patient outcomes.”
Symptoms account for half of all outpatient primary care visits. In a review article published in 2014, Dr. Kroenke and colleagues reported that one in three common symptoms do not have a clear-cut disease-based explanation. That percentage is now thought to be more than one in two, he says.
The need to address both physical and psychological symptoms has long been recognized, says Dr. Kroenke, whose measurement tools are helping physicians to do so. He concludes his JAMA Network Open commentary with an illustrative quote from Ovid [born 43 B.C.], “I am no better in mind than in body; both alike are sick and I suffer double hurt.” (Newswise/SS)
