The Experience of Pain in Depressed Patients: a Clinical and Experimental Study

An experience of pain according to Merskey’s definition was found in 24 out of 40 consecutive patients with depressive disorders. No age or sex differences were found between patients with & those without an experience of pain. Patients with an experience of pain were found to have a more severe type of depression, more psychic & vegetative anxiety, more motoric restlessness, more local tension, more thoughts of suicide, more hypochondriac ideas, more sleep disturbances & a higher total depression score. In the experimental part of the study, 30 patients- 18 with an experience of pain- were investigated with pain measures & visual averaged evoked responses. No differences were found in pain measures between patients with & those without an experience of pain. Out of 18 patients with an experience of pain, 15 were found to be augmented as measured by visual averaged evoked responses. In the group of patients without pain only 4 out of 12 patients were augmenters. (35 refs)