SynthesisTranslational psychiatry2022
Neural correlates of co-occurring pain and depression: an activation-likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis and systematic review.
Synthesis in Translational psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- Painful physical symptoms and antidepressant treatment outcome in depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Neurobiology of osteoarthritis: a systematic review and activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2023Pooled it
- Whole-brain mapping of TMS-induced discomfort with large-scale concurrent TMS-fMRI.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Predicting Pain Using a Data-Driven Agent-Based Model of the Bilateral Central Amygdala.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Sarcopenia as a risk factor for incident pain in Chinese middle-aged and older adults: longitudinal evidence from the CHARLS cohort.The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2026Article
- Unveiling state-specific neural dynamics in migraine with and without depressive symptom: a hidden Markov model and interpretable machine learning approach.The journal of headache and pain · 2026Article
- Central Sensitization as a Marker of Cognitive and Emotional Vulnerability in Chronic Low Back Pain.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Chronic stress increases the susceptibility to chronic vulvar pain following acute vulvar inflammation in a preclinical model of vulvodynia.Molecular brain · 2026Article
- Beta-lactam Antibiotic Cefepime Attenuates Lipopolysaccharide-induced Pain and Depression By Modulating Inflammatory Response and Astroglial Glutamate Transporter in Mice.Journal of neuroimmune pharmacology : the official journal of the Society on NeuroImmune Pharmacology · 2026Article
- Longitudinal Relationship Between Pain and Depression in People With Inflammatory Arthritis: A Narrative Review.Arthritis care & research · 2026Review
- Ventrolateral orbital cortex as a functional hub in chronic pain and comorbid depression.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Brain-bone axis dysregulation: Biological code underlying the bidirectional association between depression and musculoskeletal disorders.Journal of orthopaedic translation · 2026Review
- Patterns of Pain in Middle-Aged and Older Adults in China: A Latent Class Analysis.Pain and therapy · 2025Article
- Single-dose psilocybin rapidly and sustainably relieves allodynia and anxiodepressive-like behaviors in mouse models of chronic pain.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
- Stress-Related Brain Alterations in Chronic Pain.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- Mentalizing, Loneliness and Pain-Related Depressive Symptoms Are Associated with Pain Severity in Patients with Rheumatic Diseases: Results of a Cross-Sectional Secondary Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Gene discovery and pleiotropic architecture of chronic pain in a genome-wide association study of >1.2 million individuals.Research square · 2025Article
- Gene discovery and pleiotropic architecture of Chronic Pain in a Genome-wide Association Study of >1.2 million Individuals.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Mapping the exposome of mental health: exposome-wide association study of mental health outcomes among UK Biobank participants.Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- Temporal lobe dysfunction for comorbid depressive symptoms in postherpetic neuralgia patients.Brain communications · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The relationship between pain and depression is thought to be bidirectional and the underlying neurobiology 'shared' between the two conditions. However, these claims are often based on qualitative comparisons of brain regions implicated in pain or depression, while focused quantitative studies of the neurobiology of pain-depression comorbidity are lacking. Particularly, the direction of comorbidity, i.e., pain with depression vs. depression with pain, is rarely addressed. In this systematic review (PROSPERO registration CRD42020219876), we aimed to delineate brain correlates associated with primary pain with concomitant depression, primary depression with concurrent pain, and equal pain and depression comorbidity, using activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis. Neuroimaging studies published in English until the 28th of September 2021 were evaluated using PRISMA guidelines. A total of 70 studies were included, of which 26 reported stereotactic coordinates and were analysed with ALE. All studies were assessed for quality by two authors, using the National Institute of Health Quality Assessment Tool. Our results revealed paucity of studies that directly investigated the neurobiology of pain-depression comorbidity. The ALE analysis indicated that pain with concomitant depression was associated with the right amygdala, while depression with concomitant pain was related primarily to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). We provide evidence that pain and depression have a cumulative negative effect on a specific set of brain regions, distinct for primary diagnosis of depression vs. pain.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.