France R D, Krishnan K R, Houpt J L, Maltbie A A
Am J Psychiatry. 1984 Dec;141(12):1577-9. doi: 10.1176/ajp.141.12.1577.
The concept of chronic pain has become enmeshed with depression. In an attempt to unravel this complex relationship, the authors studied a uniform group of 42 patients with chronic pain, i.e., patients who had chronic low back pain with defined organic pathology, in relation to the dexamethasone suppression test (DST). The results were analyzed in relation to the presence or absence of major depression and cortisol suppression. Forty-one percent of the patients with major depression had abnormal cortisol responses to dexamethasone administration; all patients without major depression had normal responses. These results suggest that chronic pain patients differ from patients with major depression and a positive DST.
慢性疼痛的概念已与抑郁症交织在一起。为了理清这种复杂的关系，作者研究了一组统一的42例慢性疼痛患者，即患有明确器质性病变的慢性下腰痛患者，并进行了地塞米松抑制试验（DST）。根据是否存在重度抑郁症和皮质醇抑制情况对结果进行了分析。重度抑郁症患者中有41%对地塞米松给药的皮质醇反应异常；所有无重度抑郁症的患者反应均正常。这些结果表明，慢性疼痛患者与重度抑郁症患者以及DST呈阳性的患者有所不同。
