A new study showed that adults living with spinal cord injuries had a nearly 80 percent increased risk of developing psychological conditions, such as depression and anxiety, compared to people without traumatic injuries. But he also suggested that chronic pain can have an equally large negative effect on mental health.
The study was published in Spinal Cord by a Michigan Medicine-led team of researchers who analyzed the private insurance claims of more than 9,000 adults with a traumatic spinal cord injury and more than 1 million adults without it.
They represented a range of psychological problems. termsfrom anxiety and mood disorders to insomnia and dementia.
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People living with a spinal cord injury were diagnosed with a mental health condition more often than those without the injury: 59.1 percent vs. 30.9 percent. While depression and adverse mental health effects are not inevitable consequences of all traumatic spinal cord injuries, previous findings have consistently reflected higher levels of psychological morbidity in this group than in the general population without spinal cord injuries. spinal cord.
In this study, however, chronic centralized and neuropathic pain among adults living with spinal cord injury was found to be strongly associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, and other mental health conditions. . In most cases, chronic pain had an even greater influence on these conditions than exposure to living with the injury itself.
The researchers said the findings should prompt doctors to identify mental health conditions when caring for spinal cord injury patients and refer them to mental health providers for treatment.
“Enhanced clinical efforts are needed to facilitate early detection and treatment of both chronic pain and psychological health in this higher-risk population,” said Mark Peterson, PhD, lead author of the paper and associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Michigan Medicine.
However, the researchers noted that a lack of insurance coverage and limited available services would likely leave the problem largely unaddressed.
“Stakeholders must work together to push for more federal funding for research and special policy amendments to ensure adequate, long-term physical and mental health insurance coverage to meet the needs of people living with spinal cord injuries,” Peterson said.
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