Worsening Depression May Predict Future Pain in Older Adults: UCL Study Finds
New Delhi: Middle-aged and older adults who experience frequent pain are more likely to have had worsening symptoms of depression and loneliness up to eight years before the pain began, according to a new study published in eClinicalMedicine by researchers at University College London. The findings suggest that early mental health support may help prevent or reduce physical pain later in life.
The study analysed 21 years of data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, which surveys a nationally representative group of adults over age 50 every two years. Researchers compared 3,668 adults who frequently experienced moderate to severe pain with an equal number of people who did not report significant pain.
They found that in the pain group, symptoms of depression worsened sharply in the years leading up to the onset of pain, peaked when pain began, and remained high afterwards. In contrast, the non-pain group had fewer and more stable depressive symptoms. A similar pattern was observed for loneliness, which increased before and after the onset of pain in the pain group but remained low in the non-pain group.
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