Hi, Erica...
Some people would make this a "chicken or egg" phenomena, but I won't. I believe any amount of continuous chronic pain is almost certain to play hob with our neurotransmitters, specifically serotonin and norepinephrine. Those both are intimately related to depression. Add the reactive depression as our disease progresses, forcing us to grieve and accept the losses of things we used to be able to do, and it makes it worse. Is there a genetic predisposition connecting depression and AS? I doubt it.
I also believe (all you MDs on here are welcome to correct me if I'm wrong) that AS sometimes gives us massive inflammation both in and around the spinal cord. Inflammation produces irritating hisatamines as well as endorphins both good and bad at the site of the inflammation. Some of that chemical stew has to mix with our spinal fluid, setting off many untoward reactions.
That's why, IMHO, I'm surprised to hear about an ASer who doesn't suffer from depression.
Hope this helps...
John
Last edited by Johninco; 09/20/10 05:32 PM.
Author: Mayan Solstice: A Novel of 2012 (
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If you would know a man, observe how he treats a cat.-
from "The Door into Summer" (1957), chapter 1 (Robert Anson Heinlein)
Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. (again, RAH)
