Minor Weight Loss Helps Alleviate Widespread Chronic Pain

Weight loss may help improve diffuse pain and related symptoms among individuals living with chronic pain, a new study found.

For their study, the researchers assessed 123 individuals with obesity undergoing a 12- to 16-week weight loss intervention involving calorie restriction. They measured patients’ spatial distribution of pain, symptom severity, depression, and total fibromyalgia scale scores before and after weight loss.
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Findings revealed that pain, symptom severity, depression, and fibromyalgia scores improved after weight loss. The researchers observed greater improvement in somatic symptoms and fibromyalgia scores in men than in women.

In addition, they noted greater improvement in individuals who lost at least 10% of body weight vs those who lost less than 10%. Interleukin-10 levels had increased following the intervention.

“Weight loss may improve diffuse pain and comorbid symptoms commonly seen in chronic pain participants,” the researchers concluded.

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Schrepf A, Harte SE, Miller N, et al. Improvement in the spatial distribution of pain, somatic symptoms, and depression after a weight loss intervention. J Pain. 2017;18(12):1542-1550. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2017.08.004.