Pain & Depression, QOTD

OK, so on a scale from 1 to 10, today's pain factor is about a 7. And that's after I've already taken about 8 Aleve pills. And it's only 11:22 am. This is really getting to be a bit ridiculous. Not to mention, painful. And, of course, the pain affects my depression. Scientists have just begun looking into the effects that physical pain has on the effectiveness of various drug therapies and other treatments for depression:

"In particular, the odds of a poor depression treatment response were twice as high in patients with moderate pain at baseline and three to four times as high in those with severe pain," Bair says.

In another study, researchers have linked chronic pain to depression. So it's kind of like this vicious cycle, wherein pain causes depression to worsen, which in turn causes more pain:

Among the participants, 17 percent had chronic pain and 4 percent had symptoms of major depression; however, 43 percent of those with major depression also had chronic pain. Of the symptoms, headaches and backaches were most commonly found in depressed people. People who had pain for 24 hours were also more likely to have major depression, indicating that continuous pain increases the likelihood of having a major depressive disorder diagnosis.

When the pain gets to around this level, I really start concentrating on whether it's all worth it to carry on. So to take my mind off things, ponder this:

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

~ Douglas Adams (1952-2001), U.K. Author
(famous for his novel, A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)