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Chronic Physical Pain and Depression in Hong Kong
Hong Kong Mood Disorders Center of the Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, randomly selected over 5,000 Hong Kong adults, aged 18-65, and interviewed them according to the diagnostic criteria for depression of the American Psychiatric Association during March 7 and April 4, 2005. The survey aims to investigate the connection between chronic physical pain and depression. The result shows that 50.7% respondents ( ie in estimate 2,445,058 adults in Hong Kong) suffer from at least one of three kinds of chronic physical pain (namely, neck/back pain, headache, and joint pain) in the previous 12 months. Chronic physical pain is very common across all ages and occupational groups and in particular, female, older, unemployed and retired people are at higher risk. The survey also finds that for people with chronic physical pain, their risk of getting depression is 5.6 times of those without chronic physical pain; their risk of thinking about suicide is 2.4 times of those without. Nonetheless, only a small percentage of them seek professional help, indicating that public awareness of depression and its close connection with chronic pain is limited. ¡§We are just beginning to realize that a large number of people with chronic pain coming to see doctors also have symptoms of depression which not being aware of or diagnosed,¡¨, said Professor Lee Sing. For individuals who have three kinds of chronic pain, the risk of depression increases to 13.9 times of those without chronic physical pain. Many of patients with chronic physical pain focus on pain symptoms when they visit doctors, resulting in the failure of revealing symptoms of depression. Untreated depressive and chronic physical pain potentiate each other and lead to a vicious cycle that escalates the risk of suicide. Early treatment that attends to both depressive and chronic physical pain will hasten recovery and enhance the well-being of the sufferers. To enhance public awareness of depression, the Hong Kong Mood Disorders Center will launch a Defeat Depression Week Campaign starting on April 1, 2006. The campaign is supported by a generous donation of HKD 1 million from Ms. Hsu Feng, Managing Director of Tomson Group Limited. |