Osteoarthritis is the “wear and tear” arthritis that usually comes with age and is seen more readily in female patients. The accumulation of cytokines slowly wears away cartilage that causes incredible pain between the joints. With this chronic, non-stop pain, one has to wonder the metal status of a patient. Along with frustration and desperation, depression usually follows such an illness. And if the patient does have depression, it might increase the pain creating a vicious cycle.
The study I found, from the American College of Rheumatology, looked at if there is a way to explain the pain-depression link in older adults with osteoarthritis. While previous studies have shown a direct relationship between pain and depression, this team wanted to see if the pain leads to a series of changes that relate to the function and contribute to greater pain. This study took a long three-years and a huge patient cohort (914) and tested patients by pain, disability and stiffness by using a WOMAC pain scale. While controlling for the effects of psychosocial and demographic features, they found that pain leads to a depressed mood through its effects on fatigue and disability. And further more, fatigue leads to worsening of OA symptoms. Because one in five people have arthritis, the research team hopes that their findings can lead to helping the clinical management of pain in older OA adults.
check it out! http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy2.library.arizona.edu/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1529-0131;jsessionid=1485E956E1CBD2195D63D6683E90D203.d04t03?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+disrupted+5+Nov+from+10-12+GMT+for+monthly+maintenance
It's sad that an already debilitating disease causes even more problems in the patients lives. They lose aspects of their lives that make them who they are and end up depending on people instead of being in control themselves. I hope that researchers find a way to control this so as to minimize the effects this disease already has.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment that this disease is terrible when it gets worse and causes the onset of depression as shown by this study. I'm also wondering how accurate the pain measurements were. I read a little further and you mentioned the WOMAC pain scale. How exactly does this scale work?
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you, I could imagine that it is very frustrating. But the WOMAC pain scale is disease specific for OA and more specifically for knee osteoarthritis. It measures 24 items that are divided in three groups; pain, stiffness and physical function. It is assessed through a questionnaire and pain can be scored in the range from 0-20, stiffness from 0-8 and physical function 0-68. The higher the score you get, the worse.
ReplyDeleteThis whole concept of the vicious cycle of OA seems to be a really serious issue. We have mentioned how big of an impact psycho-social factors can have on pretty much any disease and it seems sad that the severe pain that these patients already have to endure is worsened by this onset of depression symptoms. It definitely seems like this should be a big topic to research in the field of OA treatment research -- attempting to at least find a way to lessen the pain enough so that patients are not becoming depressed.
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