Am J Psychiatry 1979; 136:1148-1151
Copyright © 1979 by American Psychiatric Association
Analgesia to painful stimuli in affective illness
GC Davis, MS Buchsbaum and WE Bunney Jr
Patients with bipolar and unipolar affective illness (N = 76) were compared
with 48 control subjects on a psychophysical pain rating procedure using
both threshold and signal detection analysis. Affectively ill patients were
more analgesic than controls, and depressed men were significantly more
analgesic than depressed women or control subjects. Bipolar men showed a
different pattern of analgesia than unipolar patients. Pain appreciation in
depressed patients may be related to endogenous opiate-like substances;
this could be assessed in narcotic antagonist studies of pain-tolerant
depressed subjects.
