People with spinal cord injury and chronic pain have more risk of mental health issues: Study

But it also suggested that chronic pain may have an equally large, negative effect on health"mental health. The study was published in 'Spinal Cord' by a Michigan Medicine-led team of researchers who analyzed private insurance claims from more than 9,000 adults with a traumatic injury spinal cord injury and more than 1 million adults without. 

They accounted for a range of psychological conditions, from anxiety and mood disorders to insomnia and dementia. People living with a injury"spinal cord injury were diagnosed with a health mental health condition more often than those without the injury - 59.1 per cent versus 30.9 per cent. 

While depression and adverse health mental health effects are not inevitable consequences of every traumatic spinal injury, past findings have consistently echoed higher levels of psychological morbidity among this group than the general population without spinal cord injuries. 

In this study, however, chronic centralized and neuropathic pain among adults living with a injury spinal cord injury were found to be robustly associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders and other health mental health conditions. 

In most cases, chronic pain was an even greater influence on these conditions than exposure to living with the injury itself. Researchers said, the findings should prompt physicians to identify health mental health conditions when seeing patients with spinal cord injuries and refer them to health mental health providers for treatment. 

"Improved clinical efforts are needed to facilitate screening of, and early treatment for, 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, researchers noted that a lack of insurance coverage and limited available services would likely cause the issue to remain largely unaddressed. 

"Stakeholders need to work together to lobby for more federal research funding and special policy amendments to ensure adequate and long-term insurance coverage for both physical and health mental health to meet the needs of folks living with spinal cord injuries," Peterson said.