The Relationship between Chronic Pain, Immune Function, Depression, and Health Behaviors

The objectives of this study were 1) to determine the relationships between pain perceptions, immune function, depression and health behaviors and 2) to examine the effects of chronic pain on immune function using depression and health behaviors as covariates. A nonexperimental cross-sectional desig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biological research for nursing 2003-07, Vol.5 (1), p.18-29
Main Authors: Vines, Susan W., Gupta, Sat, Whiteside, Theresa, Dostal-Johnson, Dorene, Hummler-Davis, Anna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Case-Control Studies
Chronic Disease
Cross-Sectional Studies
Depression - diagnosis
Depression - etiology
Depression - immunology
Depression - psychology
Female
Health Behavior
Humans
Immunocompetence - immunology
Killer Cells, Natural - immunology
Life Style
Low Back Pain - complications
Low Back Pain - diagnosis
Low Back Pain - immunology
Low Back Pain - psychology
Lymphocyte Activation - immunology
Lymphocyte Count
Male
Middle Aged
Multivariate Analysis
Neuroimmunomodulation
Nursing
Pain Measurement
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Surveys and Questionnaires
T-Lymphocytes - immunology
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Summary:The objectives of this study were 1) to determine the relationships between pain perceptions, immune function, depression and health behaviors and 2) to examine the effects of chronic pain on immune function using depression and health behaviors as covariates. A nonexperimental cross-sectional design was used to compare 24 chronic back pain patients with 33 asymptomatic no-pain healthy subjects. Immune function measures using natural killer (NK) cell activity, percent and numbers of NK cells, and T-cell lymphocyte proliferation with mitogens concanavalin A (ConA) and pytohemagglutinin (PHA) as well as self-report measures for depression and health behaviors were collected on all subjects. Pain perceptions showed positive significant correlations with depression (P = 0.01) and total percent of NK cells (P = 0.04). Depression and health behaviors were negatively correlated (P = 0.01). Positive associations were observed for depression and 2 PHA mitogen levels (P < 0.05). Comparison of group means, controlling for depression and health behaviors, showed that chronic pain patients' immune function, as measured by the combined NK effector to target (E:T) cell ratio levels, was significantly higher than the no-pain comparison group. Pain perceptions may have a deleterious effect on enumerative NK cell measures and depression levels. However, people with chronic pain may not experience attenuation in functional immune parameters.
ISSN:1099-8004
1552-4175
DOI:10.1177/1099800403005001002