Arthritis Health Center

This article is from the WebMD News Archive

Font Size

Treating Depression May Ease Arthritis

Fighting Elderly Depression Reduces Pain and Improves Quality of Life

By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD

Nov. 11, 2003 (New York) -- Improving the treatment of depression among the elderly not only boosts their outlook on life, but it may also reduce the pain and disability caused by arthritis.

Both depression and arthritis are common and disabling conditions among the elderly, and a new study shows that better depression care can benefit more than just the person's depression -- it can also help ease the pain and suffering caused by arthritis. Researchers found that giving older people adequate treatment for their depression lessened the negative impact arthritis had on their lives.

"In addition to better mood, their pain interference with daily activities was also less," says researcher Elizabeth Lin, MD, MPH, of the Center for Health Studies, Group Health Cooperative, in Seattle, Wash. "We also saw improvement in patients reporting that they had better overall quality of life."

Lin presented the results of the study, which appears in the Nov. 12 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, at an American Medical Association briefing on pain management held here.

Treat One, Ease the Other

Researchers say depression affects about one in six older adults, and nearly a third of adults older than 65 suffer from arthritis, making it one of the leading causes of disability among the elderly.

In this study researchers looked at whether enhancing care for depression improved pain and other aspects of daily life in 1,001 adults over 60 who were being treated for both depression and arthritis at 18 primary care clinics across the U.S.

At the start of the study, less than half of the participants were taking antidepressant medications and 57% were taking pain medications.

During the course of the study, participants were randomly assigned to usual care such as antidepressant drugs or an intervention designed to improve depression treatment by using antidepressant medication and/or six to eight sessions of problem-solving psychotherapy.

After 12 months, researchers found that patients in the intervention group not only had improved depression scores but they also had lower average scores for pain intensity and reported less interference with daily activities due to arthritis or pain in general. In addition, the patients who received the enhanced depression care had better overall health and quality of life compared to those who received the standard treatment with antidepressant drugs.

Researchers say that about 80% of the patients in the intervention group received antidepressant medications and about a third participated in the psychotherapy. The estimated cost of the intervention was about $550 per patient.

But Lin says treating depression adequately saves money in the long run because previous studies have shown that older adults with depression use health care services 50% more than those without depression. She says future studies will look at the cost-effectiveness of implementing this treatment approach at other primary care clinics.