Chronic pain may be a risk factor for suicide, according to a new study that found nearly one in 10 people who commit suicide had signs of chronic pain.
The study examined data on 123,181 suicide deaths from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Violent Death Reporting System. Records for more than 10,000 of the deaths included evidence that the person had chronic pain.
Michael Barnett, assistant professor of health policy and management at Harvard T.H. Chan School, said in a September 10, 2018 Reuters article that the findings of the study don’t shed light on the state of chronic pain management in the U.S. He did, however, say that “there aren’t any medications that seem to be particularly effective for chronic pain.”
Read the Reuters article: Chronic pain may contribute to suicide, study warns