The Final Paper/Final Research Report must be approximately 15-typed pages/5200 words of text,12 pt. font (Times New Roman), double-spaced, 1–inch margins all sides. See below and the Unit 8 Lecture f

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEPRESSION AND PAIN AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS 0

Relationship between Depression and Pain among College Students in US

Kean University

Research and Technology

04/26/20

Problem Statement

A higher percentage of students with depression are as well affected by pain. It is true that depression affects a small percentage of students with chronic pain while affecting a higher percentage of students with depression. The objective of the study will therefore be investigating the relationship between depression and pain among the college students is US. The study population for the research problem will be anyone within the ages of 15-30 years. Since it is impossible to analyze that study population in the entire country, the study population will be refined by using a sample of the population of all the people in that age group in Kean University. What needs to be understood in the research problem is how the general population has been affected by chronic pain and how it increases the chances of developing depression (Vadivelu et al., 2017). That will help in understanding how the complexity between pain and physical functioning can be solved.

The research problem is specific hence appropriate to be studied. The research problem helps in understanding the psychological functioning of the people hence being relevant to the major. It as well helps in understanding the behaviors of the people and the factors that impact the changes in the behavior (Phan et al., 2017). What is more motivating in undertaking the research problem is to understand how the moods of the people have been affected by problems that come as a result of pain. Understanding the relationship between depression and pain is an issue that affects the majority of the general population hence it is a topic that everyone needs to have some interest in researching on. Self-esteem is part of the key issues that need to be studied in the research problem. Nevertheless, is there direct relationship between depression and pain?

Literature Review

There exists a significant relationship between pain and depression among the college students in US. Chronic pain is considered to be having a greater risk of depression, and studies have shown that a higher percentage of people with depression are as well affected by pain. It is true that depression affects a small percentage of people with chronic pain while affecting a higher percentage of people experiencing depression (Stanculete et al., 2017). The majority of people that meet the entire criteria of the major depression still meet the criteria for the chronic painful physical condition (CPPC). It is as well true that the people that have reported an incidence of CPPC still have reported different symptoms of fatigue, unlike the people that do nor experience any form of pain.

Psychologists describe depression as a mental disorder that is always associated with both somatic and emotional symptoms. There is a higher probability of the people experiencing both the physical and somatic symptoms to be as well be experiencing a major depressive disorder. Nevertheless, depression cannot be effectively assessed in most of the people that have already shown any physical symptoms (Brown et al., 2016). That develops, the more likely that such people will be more resistance to treatment.

There are common comorbidities in the relationship between pain and depression. Such comorbidities include a higher risk of stress in people being affected by both depression and pain. The relationship between pain and depression can as well be assessed through the distortion of the sensitivity to pain. Although the majority of the studies have already justified a positive relationship between negative emotions and pain, it is as well true that negative emotions can help in reducing pain (Shim et al., 2017). The relationship between pain and emotions can, therefore, be referred to as multidimensional. There is as well a bidirectional relationship between pain and depression.

Neurobiological Basis of the Relationship between Depression and Pain

Different findings have suggested that the mesolimbic system in human beings responds to both the pleasure and pain the people are experiencing.It is true that there is a direct relationship between the different body organs of a human being that are associated with the emotions and the sensory body organs that have the responsibility of detecting both depression and pain (Stubbs et al., 2018). Patients experiencing a form of depression have a higher likelihood of having more emotional reactions compared to the patients not experiencing any form of depression. The relationship between pain and depression have different comparable neurobiological mechanisms.

Neuropathic Pain

The neuropathic pain is the kind of pain that is caused to a human being as a result of the injury that occurs to the nervous system. The neuropathic pain is as well considered as a form of chronic stress that shares different features with the depression that is by stress. One of the key features shared is the neuropathologic mechanism. That means that both the neuropathic pain and the stress-induced depression may share the forms of treatment. That means that the stress-induced disorders can be regulated by ameliorating the descending monoamine.

The relationship between pain and depression have proven to be affecting neuropathic pain in different ways.One of the effects is on the psychological components that have been under study for a long period. Different suggestion argues that there are different psychological components that affect different perceptions that people have towards pain through impacting their variations of how chronic pain progresses. For example, anxiety is believed to be affecting the pain being experienced by an individual negatively (Amirifard et al., 2017). Additionally, optimism, which is a form of a positive psychological outlook in human beings, has proven to be having a positive effect on the ability of the people coping with both depression and pain.

Dispositional optimism is the expectation of the people that they will receive a positive outcome in different situations in their life. The dispositional optimism can be used as a positive predictor of health since it helps in reducing the likelihood of people being depressed. The dispositional optimism has as well been used as a predictor of the low emotional stress because of the reduced pain by human beings (Boone & Kim, 2019). The relationship between pain and depression can be used in showing how multitargeted therapy can be used in managing neuropathic pain. This process proves to be more effective compared to the other therapies that have proven to be targeting a single pathway.

The Opioid Use as a Factor Affecting the Relationship between Depression and Pain

Using opioids has greatly increased as people try to manage depression and pain. The majority of the Americans have already adopted to using opioid analgesics nonmedically. Although different studies have shown that the opioids can be used on the long-term management of depression and pain, it as well true that they can as well help in the short-term management of depression and pain too (Phan et al., 2017). Once the benefits of using the opioids on the patients are clear, then they need to be used regularly to prevent their negative effects. Such negative effects of applying the opioids on the patients include addiction.

The majority of the patients suggest that in case the opioids prove to be ineffective in their life, then there is a need for the dosing to be increased. Failure to understand that majority of the patients tend to increase their dosage instead of stopping to use the medication may be a great challenge, especially when trying to help the patient that is already suffering from depression and pain (Hübscher et al., 2016). Since the majority of the patients suffering from depression and pain are the ones considered to be affected by the efficacy trials of opioids, assessment on the use of opioids on such patients remains to be an issue in the relationship between pain and depression that is yet to be explored.

The relationship between using opioids and depression tends to be multifactorial. Therefore, there are different modes that have been used in explaining their relationship. Such modes base their argument on that the patients experiencing a form of depression tend to be affected by pain, unlike the patients that do not have depression (Vadivelu et al., 2017). That means such patients will need to have a higher dosage of opioids hence increasing the possibility of the opioids that are prescribed on them. As the severity of pain among the paints experiencing depression increased, their need for using opioids still increased.

Psychological Factors Affecting the Relationship between Pain and Depression

Different studies have suggested the positive psychological factors that can be used in helping people adjust to pain and optimism. Hope has been identified as one of the psychological factors that can be used in reducing pain and depression. Hope is associated with reducing any form of distress that may be caused by pain. Pain acceptance is another key psychological factor that can be used in solving the relationship between pain and depression (Lee & Han, 2018). Pain acceptance has been defined as the process of participating in different activities that are meaningful, although they may result in pain and depression. People with higher pain acceptance have a tendency to reduce depression.

Gender as a Factor Affecting the Relationship between Pain and Depression

Studies have started to come up with different findings that can be used in supporting gender differences as a phenomenon that can be used in describing the relationship between pain and depression. Such gender differences have been used in describing the vulnerabilities to the diseases that may cause pain. The women demonstrate a lower tolerance to pain because of their possibility of being depressed easily (Amirifard et al., 2017). Women still report a negative response to any form of depression and pain. Gender is a key factor that can be used in understanding the relationship between pain and depression, but the psychological and social factors have as well grown.

The gender roles have played a great role in the relationship between pain and depression, with the females reporting a higher pain intensity. The expression of the relationship between pain and depression seems to be more evident in the female compare to the male counterparts (Amirifard et al., 2017). Although the male can prove to be more adaptable to both depression and pain, women prove to be more adaptable to depression.

Research Methodology

Introduction

Research methodology refers to a path in which the research shall be conducted by the researcher. Hence it shows how the results will be obtained which are in line with the set objectives of the research. This chapter will cover research design, the study area, target population, data collection, data analysis and presentation, and finally ethical consideration.

Research Design

This study the researcher will use descriptive research design to establish the relation between depression and pain among college students in the U.S. In descriptive research design the characteristics of the subjects are described as they appear with no attempts to change their behaviors (Edmonds, & Kennedy, 2016). This type of research design will be used because can collect large amounts of rich data that is detailed analyzed for recommendations.

The Study Area

The importance of the study area is establishing the real area where data in the research will be collected. Thus, this a territory specified by the researcher for data collection (Adams,& Lawrence, 2018). The researcher will collect data from the sampled college institutions in the U.S. The rationale behind selecting a college will be based on whether the college is a registered institution and offers various programmes. Also, a college will be selected based on the availability of data.

Target Population

Population is a complete set of subjects or individuals who have common characteristics. Thus, target population refers to a group of individuals in which the sample will be taken for measurement (Asiamah, Mensah, &Oteng-Abayie, 2017). In this research the target population will be students from the colleges in the U.S. This will include both the undergraduate and postgraduate students in these colleges.

Data Collection

Data collection is a very important stage in every research where the researcher needs to defines all the processes used in collecting this data. To avoid errors data management methods should be observed to gather quality data that can best achieve the objectives of the research. Thus, data collection refers to the process of gathering the required information to prove some facts (Lee, 2019). The researcher intends to obtain a permit from relevant bodies maybe pertinent to this research.The researcher will obtain a letter of introduction from the college, in the department which shall be used in obtaining data from the other colleges under the study.

College student data is always accessible to authorized college staff and perhaps their students when permitted too. Therefore, from unauthorized people data can only be accessed through proper channel of communication, thus, the use of the introductory letter. However, this study shall use secondary data, which shall include data on students reports which is readily available from the colleges. The rationale for using secondary data is that it gives a cost-effective in the research budget. This data will be combined and stored well for research analysis.

Data Analysis and Presentation

In this stage, the researcher carries out the analysis of the collected data. Thus, data analysis is a process of examining the collected data, scrutinizing it properly to make inference and deductions. On the other hand, presentation refers to the process of organizing data into tables, charts or graphs to help drive out the statistical and logical conclusions. In this study after collecting data, it will be organized and proper coding is done as this the first part of the analysis. Data cleaning will also be done to eliminate any errors that may be present in the data to quality results.

The study uses quantitative data analysis method as the data collected in the secondary research is aquantitative type of data. Analysis tool that shall be used in this study will R, and Statistical Package for Social Statistics (SPSS version 21). This data will be analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics.For descriptive statistics shall include meaning, variance, standard deviations, maximum and minimum values, while inferential statistics will include correlation and regression analysis for testing the hypothesis.

Correlation analysis will help to quantify the extent to which depression and pain are related. It provides the linear relationship between these two variables and also through the evaluation of the correlation coefficient value it will tell how much depression as a variable change when pain does. On the other hand, regression analysis helps in predicting the relationship between depression and pain (Walliman, 2017).Finally, tables and graph will be used in presenting the findings thus, giving summaries.

Ethical Consideration

Values and principles that address some questions on what is good or bad for human affairs must be considered. Major ethical issues in conducting research include confidentiality, anonymity, informed consent and voluntary participation (Pietilä et al., 2020). In this study, the researcher will ensure the necessary limits of confidentiality of the students’ data are achieved. Also, due steps will be taken to ensure that before the collection of data from any college, permission is awarded.

References

Adams, K. A., & Lawrence, E. K. (2018). Research methods, statistics, and applications. Sage Publications.

Amirifard, N., Payandeh, M., Aeinfar, M., Sadeghi, M., Sadeghi, E., & Ghafarpor, S. (2017). A survey on the relationship between emotional intelligence and level of depression and anxiety among women with breast cancer. International journal of hematology-oncology and stem cell research, 11(1), 54. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5338283/

Asiamah, N., Mensah, H. K., &Oteng-Abayie, E. F. (2017). General, target, and accessible population: Demystifying the concepts for effective sampling. The Qualitative Report, 22(6), 1607.

Boone, D., & Kim, S. Y. (2019). Family Strain, Depression, and Somatic Amplification in Adults with Chronic Pain. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 26(4), 427-436. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12529-019-09799-y

Brown, A., Rance, J., & Bennett, P. (2016). Understanding the relationship between breastfeeding and postnatal depression: the role of pain and physical difficulties. Journal of advanced nursing, 72(2), 273-282. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jan.12832

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Lee, A. J. (2019). U-statistics: Theory and Practice. Routledge.

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Pietilä, A. M., Nurmi, S. M., Halkoaho, A., &Kyngäs, H. (2020). Qualitative Research: Ethical Considerations. In The Application of Content Analysis in Nursing Science Research (pp. 49-69). Springer, Cham.

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Stanculete, M. F., Căpățînă, O., Pojoga, C., & Surdea-Blaga, T. (2019). Anger Mediates the Relationship between Pain and Depression in Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Journal of Gastrointestinal & Liver Diseases, 28(4). http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype

Stubbs, B., Vancampfort, D., Firth, J., Schuch, F. B., Hallgren, M., Smith, L., ... & Carvalho, A. F. (2018). Relationship between sedentary behavior and depression: A mediation analysis of influential factors across the lifespan among 42,469 people in low-and middle-income countries. Journal of affective disorders, 229, 231-238. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032717321699

Vadivelu, N., Kai, A. M., Kodumudi, G., Babayan, K., Fontes, M., & Burg, M. M. (2017). . Ochsner Journal, 17(2), 173-180. http://www.ochsnerjournal.org/content/17/2/173.abstract

Walliman, N. (2017). Research methods: The basics. Routledge.