Is psychiatric diagnostic remission associated with reduced prevalence of moderate to severe pain interference and improved functioning among adults with lifetime psychiatric disorders?

Background: Chronic pain and non-substance use psychiatric disorders (PD) are common comorbidities, both associated with impaired functioning. However, whether and how the prevalence of pain differs in remitted PD compared to past-year PD has been little studied.Methods: In this observational study using data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions III, we compared the prevalence of moderate/severe pain interference (PI) in past-year Vs remitted PD among adults with any lifetime PD. We further studied the association of both PI and PD remission with mental and physical function.Results: In a sample representative of 77.9 million US adults with lifetime PDs, 31.7 % met criteria for PD remission. The prevalence and adjusted odds of PI was substantially lower among those with remitted PD compared to past-year PD (21.97 % Vs 35.02 %; p < .0001; Odds ratio 0.58, 95 % confidence interval = 0.51-0.66). While PI was independently associated with poorer mental functioning (Regression coefficient (RC) =-4.43, standard error (SE) = 0.33; p < .0001), PD remission was associated with higher mental functioning (RC = 4.79, SE = 0.24; p < .0001). Both PI and PD remission were independently associated with lower physical functioning, but the association was substantially stronger with PI (RC =-15.04, SE 0.27; p < .0001) than PD remission (RC =-0.37, SE 0.15; p = .016).Conclusions: The negative association of PD remission with PI and their strong associations with mental functioning, albeit in opposite directions, raises the need to further examine PD as a contributing factor in chronic pain and as a target in its treatment.