A new study published today in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension finds that chronic pain in adults may increase the likelihood of developing hypertension. The greatest influence is exerted by factors such as the location of pain, its severity and the presence of concomitant depression. In an analysis of health data from more than 200,000 American adults, researchers found that people who experienced chronic, widespread pain throughout the body had a significantly higher risk of developing high blood pressure compared with those who experienced no pain, experienced only short-term pain, or pain limited to specific parts of the body.
In the study, participants completed an initial questionnaire indicating whether, during the past month, they had had pain that interfered with their usual activities. They noted whether it was in the head, face, neck or shoulders, back, abdomen, hip, knee, or throughout the body, and if pain was present, they checked whether it persisted for more than three months. Level of depression was assessed by the frequency of depressed mood, loss of interest, anxiety, or apathy two weeks before the survey. Inflammation indicators were determined by the level of C-reactive protein in the blood.
The average follow-up period was 13.5 years. During this time, almost 10% of participants developed hypertension. The analysis found that the risk of high blood pressure was greatest in people with chronic, widespread pain throughout the body—they were about 75% more likely to develop hypertension compared with participants without pain. Short-term pain episodes increased the risk by only 10%, and chronic pain, but localized in one area, increased the risk by 20%.
When comparing different types of chronic pain with no pain, generalized pain increased the risk of hypertension by 74%, chronic abdominal pain by 43%, persistent headaches by 22%, chronic neck and shoulder pain by 19%, hip pain by 17%, and back pain by 16%. The researchers also found that depression, found in 11.3% of participants, and inflammation, found in 0.4%, together explained about 11.7% of the association between chronic pain and the development of high blood pressure.