Adults living with spinal cord injuries have a near-80% increased risk of developing psychological conditions, such as depression and anxiety, compared to people without the traumatic injury, a new study shows. But chronic pain may have an equally large, negative effect on mental health.
The study is 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 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 spinal cord injury were diagnosed with a mental health condition more often than those without the injury – 59.1% versus 30.9%. While depression and adverse 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.
Read more at: https://labblog.uofmhealth.org/lab-notes/mental-health-an-issue-for-people-spinal-cord-injury-chronic-pain-makes-it-worse