Does Chronic Nerve Pain Shorten Your Life?

Today's short post from sciencedaily.com (see link below) may not be the most cheerful of the summer but nevertheless makes you think. You may also conclude that this research is pretty much a waste of time when the conclusions seem so obvious but if you're a neuropathy patient faced with years of unrelenting pain and discomfort thanks to nerve damage, it may be worth knowing why this can also shorten your life. The answer isn't given here (more research needed) but the concluding point of the article is an important and relevant one for long-term nerve damage patients: "The implication is that society must find ways to help people with long-term pain to live life to the full at work, at home, and in the community." Now wouldn't it be nice if that happened!!
 

Can pain increase the risk of dying early?
Date: June 7, 2017 Source:Wiley

Pain that interferes with daily life, rather than pain per se, was associated with an increased risk of early death in a recent analysis.

Individuals who were often troubled with pain had a 29% increased risk of dying during the study, and those who reported "quite a bit" and "extreme" pain interference had 38% and 88% increased risks, respectively. Report of any pain or having widespread pain was not associated with an increased risk of mortality.

The study population was drawn from two large population cohorts of adults aged ?50 years; the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, with 6324 participants, and the North Staffordshire Osteoarthritis Project, with 10,985 participants.

Additional studies are needed to determine the mechanisms through which disabling pain may increase the risk of premature death.

"There is much debate about whether people with persistent pain die prematurely and why this might happen. Our study sheds new light by showing that it is not the pain itself that increases the risk of death but the amount of disruption of everyday living linked to having long-term pain," said Dr. Ross Wilkie co-author of the Arthritis Care & Research study. "The implication is that society must find ways to help people with long-term pain to live life to the full at work, at home, and in the community."

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Journal Reference: 
 
Diane Smith, Ross Wilkie, Peter Croft, John McBeth. Pain and mortality in older adults: The influence of pain phenotype. Arthritis Care & Research, 2017; DOI: 10.1002/acr.23268
 
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170607085449.htm