The study, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, suggests that among this age group, treatment for depression might help to prevent or reduce later aches and pains.
The researchers compared survey data from 3,668 adults aged over 50 who often experienced moderate to severe pain with a matched group of the same number who did not.
In the pain group, they found that depressive symptoms got rapidly worse in the eight years prior to pain, peaked at the onset of pain, and remained high in the years after, whereas in the non-pain group depressive symptoms were less severe, less prevalent, and relatively constant.
The researchers found a similar trend for loneliness, which increased both in the years before and years after the onset of pain but stayed low and relatively constant for those in the non-pain…