Overview
- The study, published November 17 in Hypertension, followed 206,963 UK Biobank adults for about 13.5 years, during which nearly 10% developed high blood pressure.
- People with widespread chronic pain had about a 75% higher risk of later hypertension compared with those reporting no pain, versus 20% for chronic localized pain and 10% for short-term pain.
- Location mattered: chronic abdominal pain was linked to a ~43% higher risk, headaches ~22%, neck or shoulder ~19%, hip ~17% and back ~16%.
- Depression, with minimal contribution from inflammation, accounted for roughly 11.7% of the observed link between persistent pain and subsequent hypertension.
- Clinicians are urged to monitor blood pressure in pain care and screen for depression, while experts call for randomized trials to test pain-management approaches and medication effects, including NSAIDs.