• Melanie Noel, Cornelius B Groenewald, Sarah E Beals-Erickson, J Thomas Gebert, and Tonya M Palermo.
• aDepartment of Psychology, University of Calgary and Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Calgary, AB, Canada bSeattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA cDepartment of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA dDepartment of Neurobiology, University of Washington, College of Arts and Sciences, and School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA Departments of eAnesthesiology, fPediatrics, and gPsychiatry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
• Pain. 2016 Jun 1; 157 (6): 1333-8.

AbstractChronic pain in childhood and adolescence has been shown to heighten the risk for depressive and anxiety disorders in specific samples in adulthood; however, little is known about the association between a wider variety of chronic pains and internalizing mental health disorders. Using nationally representative data, the objectives of this study were to establish prevalence rates of internalizing mental health disorders (anxiety and depressive disorders) among cohorts with or without adolescent chronic pain, and to examine whether chronic pain in adolescence is associated with lifetime history of internalizing mental health disorders reported in adulthood. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) was used (N = 14,790). Individuals who had chronic pain in adolescence subsequently reported higher rates of lifetime anxiety disorders (21.1% vs 12.4%) and depressive disorders (24.5% vs 14.1%) in adulthood as compared with individuals without a history of adolescent chronic pain. Multivariate logistic regression confirmed that chronic pain in adolescence was associated with an increased likelihood of lifetime history of anxiety disorders (odds ratio: 1.33; 95% confidence interval: 1.09-1.63, P = 0.005) and depressive disorders (odds ratio: 1.38; confidence interval: 1.16-1.64, P < 0.001) reported in adulthood. Future research is needed to examine neurobiological and psychological mechanisms underlying these comorbidities.

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