THOUSANDS of Australians crippled by lower back pain could be suffering because of what is in their head.

A landmark study from the University of Sydney has found patients suffering from depression are 60 per cent more likely to get lower back pain.

The research suggests up to 61,200 cases of lower back pain in Australia are partially attributed to depression.

“When people seek treatment for back pain most of the time they only target the physical impairments; they take paracetamol or they try to fix the muscles and apply localised treatments,” University of Sydney Faculty of Health Sciences, Associate Professor Paulo Ferreira, said.

“What this is actually showing is that whoever is managing that condition, or if their depression is self-managing, they need to think about their mood as well and whether they have symptoms of depression that could be the trigger for their back pain.

“Our study suggests we would have much better outcomes if we treated depression and back pain simultaneously, but this would require health professionals from different fields to work together more closely.”

Up to four million Australians suffer from lower back pain at some point in their life.

It is most common in people aged 40-50, but a recent Australian Institute of Health and Welfare study found back pain is also one of the most common long-term health conditions reported by teenagers and young adults.

media_camera About four million people suffer from lower back pain in Australia.

Associate Prof Ferreira, who is also a physiotherapist, said people reduce their physical activity levels when they have back pain or depression, making one illness lead to the other.

Researchers are now exploring a genetic link between the two ­illnesses.

The neurotransmitters which impact on mood could also be the same brain functions involved in lower back pain.

Patients with back pain and depression have 2.8 times higher medical costs than those with back pain alone.

Physiotherapist Marina Pinheiro, from the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Health Sciences and who is the study’s lead author, said health authorities need to consider how to keep the cost of treating the two conditions under control.

“Once people have both conditions they are much harder to manage,” Ms Pinheiro said.

“We would spend much more money if people have both conditions at the same time.

“If we can do something to stop them developing the other condition is going to be much easier to manage.”

The risk of low back pain also increased in patients with more severe levels of depression, and was not impacted by whether depression was self-reported or clinically diagnosed.

The University of Sydney report, published in the journal Arthritis Care and Research, investigated 19 separate studies.