Both general and somatic pain independently associated with suicidal behavior

Researchers have found in a new study that Both general and somatic pain were independently associated with suicidal behavior. Therefore along with addressing chronic pain conditions, measuring pain comorbidity can improve suicidal behavior.

The population-based Swedish twin study has been published in the recent edition of BMC Medicine Journal.

The study used data from 17,148 twins and linked it with 10 years of longitudinal, nationwide records of suicidal behavior from health and mortality registers through 2016. To investigate whether pain comorbidity versus specific pain conditions were more important for later suicidal behavior, the team led by Chen modeled a general factor of pain and two independent specific pain factors (measuring pain-related somatic symptoms and neck-shoulder pain, respectively) based on 9 self-reported chronic pain conditions. The study also used a co-twin control model to examine whether the pain-suicidal behavior associations were attributable to familial confounding.

The key findings of the study were:

Individuals scoring one standard deviation above the mean on the general pain factor had a 51% higher risk of experiencing suicidal behavior (odds ratio (OR), 1.51; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.34–1.72).

The specific factor of somatic pain was also associated with increased risk for suicidal behavior (OR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.45–2.22]). However, after adjustment for familial confounding, the associations were greatly attenuated and not statistically significant within monozygotic twin pairs (general pain factor OR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.59–1.33; somatic pain factor OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.49–2.11).

The results of the study suggests that clinicians might benefit from measuring not only specific types of pain, but also pain comorbidity. However, treating pain might not necessarily reduce future suicidal behavior, as the associations appeared to be attributable to familial confounding.

Source:

Chen, C., Pettersson, E., Summit, A. G., Boersma, K., Chang, Z., Kuja-Halkola, R., Lichtenstein, P., & Quinn, P. D. (2023). Chronic pain conditions and risk of suicidal behavior: a 10-year longitudinal co-twin control study. In BMC Medicine (Vol. 21, Issue 1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02703-8