WASHINGTON — The presence of pain in older adults is a significant risk factor for clinical depression, Stephen Harkins, Ph.D., said at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America.
Poorly managed pain lowers quality of life in older persons across cultures, said Dr. Harkins, professor in the departments of gerontology, psychiatry, and biomedical engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
He reviewed data on 2,900 adults (mean age 75 years) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and 2,081 adults (mean age 78 years) from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Both studies included data on musculoskeletal pain, including swollen joints and hip, back, knee, and neck pain.
Mean scores on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale were similar for older adults in the United States (9.3) and Australia (8.2). Overall, 47% of the adults surveyed reported pain in the past week, and the risk of depression was independently related to the presence, type, and number of musculoskeletal problems. In addition, reports of pain more than doubled an individual's risk for exceeding a score of 20 on the CES-D—the cutoff point for clinical depression.
“The take-home message is that pain increases the probability of scoring high on a depression scale,” said Dr. Harkins, who also is director of the psychophysiology and memory laboratory at the university.