Joint pain is a very common problem with many possible causes - but it's usually a result of injury or arthritis.
Due to the fact that anxiety can increase long term stress, the risk of of inflammation is high. I think This inflammation can cause pain and swelling in joints, affecting every day movements.
Dear Colleague
Your question is interesting. I can say the relationship between joint pain and anxiety is a two-way relationship i.e. joint pain can cause anxiety (Reference 1) and anxiety can cause joint pain (Reference 2). The mechanisms in play here are yet to be ellucidated, but the inflammation theory you proposed is quite convincing.
Kind Regards
References
1. Article Depression and anxiety associated with three pain conditions...
2. http://www.jpain.org/article/S1526-5900(12)00806-1/abstract
I think so, if you are concerning with chronic anxiety and chronic stress. still there a wide individual variation.
It may cause joint pain but we have to distinguish whether the pain is actually coming from
the joint or the surrounding musculature. Anxiety causes tension and reduced oxygen tension which may affect musculature around some joints. Especially prone are the occipital and neck muscles as well as muscle of mastication.
First of all, one has to accept that anxiety is not an entity by itself. It is one of two factors in the same disorder. The other factor is depression. With this in mind, I would read on.
A mechanism through the inflammatory pathway with cross-links to depression, pain and arthritic conditions has been shown in previous studies. There is quite a bit of evidence on the links between depression and pain pathways. Chronic pain with increased levels of tumour necrosis factor-α is a risk factor for depression in patients with rheumatoid arthritis(1). Treatment response to antidepressant medication is reduced in patients with increased levels of inflammatory biomarkers(2). Anti-inflammatory medications reduce depressive symptoms via the COX 1 and COX 2 inflammatory pathways(3,4).
In my own experience using autologous sources to treat arthritis I found (rather surprisingly) that reductions in pain, improvements in function of joints was associated with reductions in anxiety and depression (5).
Whilst the mechanism you propose sounds plausible, I put forth a case for the opposite: arthritis predisposes to depression and anxiety through a biological basis.
References:
1. Kojima M, Kojima T, Suzuki S, et al. Depression, inflammation, and pain in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 2009 Aug 15;61(8):1018-24. doi: 10.1002/art.24647. PubMed PMID: 19644894.
2. Lanquillon S, Krieg JC, Bening-Abu-Shach U, Vedder H. Cytokine production and treatment response in major depressive disorder. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2000 Apr; 22(4):370-9.
3. Mendlewicz J, Kriwin P, Oswald P, et al. Shortened onset of action of antidepressants in major depression using acetylsalicylic acid augmentation: a pilot open-label study. Int Clin Psychopharmacol. 2006 Jul; 21(4):227-31.
4.Müller N, Schwarz MJ, Dehning S, et al. The cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor celecoxib has therapeutic effects in major depression: results of a double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled, add-on pilot study to reboxetine. Mol Psychiatry. 2006 Jul; 11(7):680-4.
5. Doss A. Quality of life after out of hospital intervention orthopaedic &
regenerative medicine procedures in an integrated service delivery model. In Press. Eur J Pers Cent Healthc.
- Badges
- Science topic