For many who suffer depression, chronic pain is a frequent fellow traveler. As many as half of those with chronic pain or with neuropathic pain disorders, such as fibromyalgia, have depression as well.That the two are so often bound together suggests a complex relationship, and the brain's shared circuitry for social and physical pain may lie at its heart.
Depression and chronic pain are distinct but similar disorders. But both may arise from some faulty wiring in their shared neural circuitry, researchers say. In both disorders, pain continues long after some initial insult has healed, disappeared or moved on, and the experience of social rejection or physical pain persists, feeds on itself and becomes chronic. Both disorders often seem mysterious in that their origins are hard to pinpoint. And both signal their presence with a subtle but powerful physiological marker: systemic inflammation.
via latimes.com