RESEARCH - Treat Depression, Chronic Pain Separately

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Study: Treat Depression, Chronic Pain Separately

Thu May 5,11:47 PM ET

THURSDAY, May 5 (HealthDay News) -- Recurrent pain and depression often go

hand-in-hand, and doctors have long puzzled over whether treating one will

get rid of the other. But a new study of brain patterns on MRI tests

suggests the two problems should be treated separately, even when they

co-exist.

The study included 42 healthy people and 53 individuals with fibroymyalgia,

a condition characterized by intense widespread pain and tenderness to

touch, often accompanied by depression.

Researchers at town University, in Washington, D.C., wanted to

determine whether higher levels of depression symptoms are associated with

increased sensitivity to pressure-induced pain. They also sought to identify

specific brain regions involved in processing acute pain, chronic pain and

symptoms of depression.

Both the fibromyalgia patients and healthy people underwent pressure-pain

sensitivity testing, which involved application of pressure to the

thumbnail. Before, during and after the pressure-pain testing, magnetic

resonance imaging (MRI) was used to observe the brain's response to the

stimulus.

During the study, the fibromyalgia patients were also asked to stop taking

antidepressant medications for four weeks before the start of the study, and

to cease using painkillers three days before the study.

MRI results showed that, compared with the healthy people, fibromyalgia

patients required far less applied pressure to activate neurons associated

with acute pain located in the brain's sensory domain. The heightened

sensitivity to pain was seen among fibromyalgia patients whether or not

they'd been diagnosed with major depression or had reported any symptoms of

depression.

The study also found only a weak correlation between the emotion-oriented

and pain-sensory brain regions, suggesting the two were not interacting.

" Much has been made of the overlap and similarities between pain and

symptoms of depression, but these and other data suggest it is also

important to identify pain-processing mechanisms that are independent of

mood, " study lead author Dr. Thorsten Giesecke said in a prepared statement.

" The notion that sensory and [emotional] aspects of pain may be

independently processed is not just of theoretical interest, " he said, since

better evaluation of these separate aspects of brain response " is likely to

improve diagnosis, choice of treatment, and treatment efficacy. "

The findings were reported in the May issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.

http://news./s/hsn/20050506/hl_hsn/studytreatdepressionchronicpainsepar\

ately

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Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org