San Francisco Decompression Doctor comments:
Most doctors know that chronic back pain can lead to depression. But, according to a new back pain-depression study I just read about on the great Spine-Health.com website, the reverse is also true. This study followed 148 people over a 3 year period who had no history of back pain. Those who reported depression when the study began were more than 2.3 times likely to develope chronic back pain than the rest of the group. That IS significant.
It just goes to show that there are a lot of things we just don't understand about chronic back pain, which makes it very difficult to diagnose and treat.
Certainly we need to consider the emotional state of the patient, as well as the physical. Depression is not going to show up on the MRI.
San Francisco Decompression Doctor comments:
Most doctors know that chronic back pain can lead to depression. But, according to a new back pain-depression study I just read about on the great Spine-Health.com website, the reverse is also true. This study followed 148 people over a 3 year period who had no history of back pain. Those who reported depression when the study began were more than 2.3 times likely to develope chronic back pain than the rest of the group. That IS significant.
It just goes to show that there are a lot of things we just don't understand about chronic back pain, which makes it very difficult to diagnose and treat.
Certainly we need to consider the emotional state of the patient, as well as the physical. Depression is not going to show up on the MRI.