Highlights
- •Obese patients with pain underwent a calorie-restriction weight loss intervention.
- •The spatial distribution of pain, fatigue, and depressive symptoms improved.
- •Improvement was greatest in those losing 10% or more of their body weight.
- •The anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 increased after weight loss.
Abstract
Weight loss is known to improve pain localized to weight-bearing joints but it is
not known how weight loss affects the spatial distribution of pain and associated
somatic symptoms like fatigue. We sought to determine if weight loss using a low-calorie
diet improves pain, affect, and somatic symptoms commonly associated with chronic
pain conditions in an observational study. We also documented changes in inflammatory
markers in serum before and after weight loss. Participants were 123 obese individuals
undergoing a 12- to 16-week calorie restriction weight loss intervention. The spatial
distribution of pain, symptom severity (eg, fatigue, sleep difficulties), depression,
and total fibromyalgia scale scores were measured before and after weight loss. Pain
(P = . 022), symptom severity (P = .004), depression (P < .001), and fibromyalgia scores (P = .004) improved after weight loss; men showed greater improvement than women on
somatic symptoms and fibromyalgia scores (both P < .01). Those who lost at least 10% of body weight showed greater improvement than
those who lost <10%. Levels of the regulatory cytokine interleukin-10 increased after
the intervention (P = .002). Weight loss may improve diffuse pain and comorbid symptoms commonly seen
in chronic pain participants.
Perspective
This article presents the effect of a weight loss intervention on characteristics
of chronic pain, including the spatial distribution of pain and comorbid somatic symptoms.
Weight loss appeared to produce larger improvements in somatic symptoms for men.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 25, 2017
Accepted:
August 17,
2017
Received in revised form:
August 8,
2017
Received:
July 7,
2017
Footnotes
This project was supported in part by Grant Number P30DK020572 (MDRC) from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Grant Number K12 DE023574 from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Dr. Harte has received research funding from Aptinyx, Cerephex, Forest Laboratories, Eli Lily, and Merck, and served as a consultant for Pfizer, Analgesic Solutions, Aptinyx, and deCode Genetics. Dr. Williams is currently the President of the American Pain Society; he has served as a consultant with Pfizer Inc and with Community Health Focus Inc. Dr. Clauw has received research funding from Cerephex, Forest, Merck, and Pfizer, and serves as a consultant for Tonix, Theravance, Cerephex, Pfizer, Abbott, Merck, Eli Lilly, UCB, Johnson & Johnson, Forest Laboratories, and Purdue Pharma.
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 by the American Pain Society
