What is the chronic pain depression rate?

High chronic pain depression rate!

Being an optimist I never experienced depression. I’m also lucky to be physically healthy, however, my wife’s chronic illnesses impacted her mental health. It made me wonder what is chronic pain depression rate?

I answer this indirectly below, but I am going to expand on it later to give more details based on my own personal experience.

So, what is the chronic pain depression rate?

Studies have shown that chronic pain and stress impact one another, and depression is the outcome of it. Chronic pain depression rate reaches up to 85%. Chronic illnesses such as endometriosis and fibromyalgia cause people to develop severe depression. Such a high chronic pain depression rate often breaks relationships.

I want to give you more data, but this is where it gets more complicated because the chronic pain depression rate seems different depending on the chronic condition people suffer from.

My wife has endometriosis, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue. Each of these chronic illnesses shows different numbers in relation to the chronic pain depression rate.

In order to understand it, I am going to answer the following questions:

• What is the chronic illness depression rate?
• What is the endometriosis depression rate?
• What is the fibromyalgia depression rate?
• What is the chronic fatigue syndrome depression rate?

What is the chronic illness depression rate?

Chronic illness depression rate is as high as 39.2% meaning that up to one-third of people with chronic conditions experience symptoms of depression, which is one of the most common complications of chronic illnesses. After a diagnosis of a serious illness, feelings of sadness and despair are normal.

Chronic illness depression rate alone can be answered in two sentences, but what is the link between chronic illness and depression?

Depression caused by chronic illness usually aggravates the illness creating a vicious cycle. Depression is likely to occur when the illness causes pain, financial strain, and social isolation. Depression often intensifies pain, fatigue causes self-doubt. The grief and loss of old healthy life brings often suicidal thoughts.

My wife’s deep infiltrating endometriosis alone impacted her mental health causing anxiety and depression, but adding fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue to it, it made her depression even worse, causing suicidal thoughts and attempts.

What is the endometriosis depression rate?

Endometriosis is a chronic, disabling disease that affects many aspects of women’s lives. Chronic pain is the main symptom of this illness.

Endometriosis is a long-term condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes.

15.1% of women with endometriosis had also a diagnosis of depression. The reason is always a pain, fatigue, financial strain, and a lack of sex. Endometriosis causes painful intercourse called dyspareunia. Women feel like a burden to their partners. The loss of fitness is also a big factor that causes depression.

Symptoms that are related to endometriosis and the severity of pain correlate with depression. Depending on the stage of endometriosis there is also the prevalence of infertility.

My wife suffering from stage IV deep infiltrating endometriosis caused us not to have kids. She felt as if she failed me as a woman due to lack of sex, failed as she will never experience being a mother.

Aside from physical, emotional, mental, and social aspects, endometriosis affects work life and the financial strain is causing women to feel depressed.

What is the fibromyalgia depression rate?

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that causes widespread pain and extreme tiredness.

Fibromyalgia symptoms vary from person to person but the main symptom is pain all over your body.

When it comes to fibromyalgia depression rate, the numbers aren’t as clear because it varies from person to person, however, I give you the numbers below.

The symptom of fibromyalgia includes brain fog, widespread pain, fatigue, insomnia, cognitive impairments. This also includes depression. As many as 90% of sufferers have symptoms of depression, however, the co-occurrence of such symptoms has 40% of people with fibromyalgia. As many as 62–86% have a major depressive disorder.

The link between fibromyalgia and depression is pretty clear because both conditions very often occur together.

Fibromyalgia and depression share similar pathophysiology. These similarities support the study that depression and fibromyalgia are related.

What is the chronic fatigue syndrome depression rate?

Chronic fatigue syndrome affects between 0.1% and 2% of people. A diagnosis is based on experiencing severe, disabling, and unremitting fatigue, lasting more than 3 months. People experience pain, headaches, nausea, dizziness, and problems with attention and concentration, however, depression occurs in as many as one in three people.

Chronic fatigue syndrome is commonly known as CFS. It is often misdiagnosed as depression because many symptoms can overlap with each other.

Depression (low mood) and more severe major depressive disorder (clinical depression), both are very common but potentially serious mood disorders.

Depression causes severe symptoms that affect how a person feels, thinks, and handles various activities, how they sleep, eat, and work.

Even though CFS and depression have some similarities, there is one major difference when it comes to the diagnosis.

To be diagnosed with depression, the symptoms must be present for at least two weeks. To be diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, the symptoms must last at least three months.

Depression in people with CFS is considered secondary depression due to the debilitating effects of CFS. This depression is common in many chronic illnesses, including endometriosis and fibromyalgia.

Tips to lower the high chronic pain divorce rate…

The chronic pain divorce rate may be high, but you don’t have to belong to this group. Here are 10 tips that can help keep your relationship healthy:

• Find support.
• Get help.
• Make time for yourself.
• Be kind to yourself.
• Identify personal barriers.
• Communicate.
• Try to be patient.
• Don’t stop learning.
• Remember your loved one.
• Approach caregiving with your heart.
• Be respectful.
• Be sensitive.
• Trust in your ability to be a caregiver.
• Know your limits.
• Try not to be judgemental.

Summarising chronic pain depression rate…

Chronic pain depression rate has simply put a rate of depression occurring in people with chronic pain. It’s a number, a percentage, showing how many people with chronic pain have depression.

My wife has three chronic conditions and it seems like her chances for getting depression triple.

To some extent, it seems logical, but the exact number can never be calculated because every person is unique, has a different environment and circumstances.

It has been agreed that the chronic pain depression rate reaches up to 85%. This number keeps coming up in various sources, such as this one, and this one.

But since we are all different, men and women, young and adults, rich and poor, the numbers will vary due to people’s circumstances.

For instance, rich people can afford to access private health care and therapists, poor people can’t. This factor alone makes poor people more likely to have depression.

Chronic illness and pain are best treated with a holistic approach that can be too expensive for the poor.

Due to the hormonal changes, women are also more likely to develop both – chronic conditions, and depression.

Adults have more wisdom, young people may struggle more.

The factors vary, circumstances differ. In my humble opinion, it’s difficult to agree on a particular number, but I’d love to know your opinion on this…

Let’s meet in the comments section and have a discussion.

What are your thoughts?