Patients and providers often view interference in functioning due to pain (or "pain interference") as something that follows a disease or injury.
However, based on their prior findings that that pain interference was positively associated with incident (or new onset) substance use, mood and anxiety disorders a group of Yale researchers comprising Declan Barry, PhD; Corey Pilver Glenn, PhD; Rani Hoff, PhD; and Marc Potenza, MD, PhD; wondered whether pain interference might also presage incident general medical conditions.
Using data from from 34,465 adult respondents who had completed waves 1 and 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, which were conducted three years apart, the researchers found that moderate or severe (compared to those with no or low) pain interference at wave 1 was significantly associated with incident any medical condition; any heart condition, including angina, tachycardia and other heart disease; any stomach condition, including stomach ulcer and gastritis; arthritis; and hypertension at wave 2.
The authors note in the study, published in the journal Pain Medicine, that the findings raise the possibility that moderate or severe pain interference may precede the onset of general medical conditions, and recommend that further research should examine whether healthcare utilization patterns, patient response to pain interference, or side effects of pain treatments might influence the relationship between pain interference and general medical conditions.