Preliminary study of thyrotrophin releasing hormone stimulation test in chronic low back pain patients

Abstract
Chronic pain has been considered as a variant of depression or as a masked depression. In an attempt to unravel the complex relationship between chronic pain and depression, we administered the TRH stimulation test to a uniform group of chronic pain patients classical into those with and without major depression using DSM-III criteria. Eighteen percent showed blunting of TSH response to TRH. There was no significant differences between the two groups.