Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis in the United States, affecting an estimated 27 million people in this country. It can result from old age as well as trauma or infection that occurs in the joints, and often leads to chronic and severe pain that can adversely affect a person's quality of life.

While current pain intervention involves medication and physical therapy, scientists are beginning to understand that a person's state of mind might play a profound role, as well.

In fact, a new study has found that people with better mental health appear to feel less pain from osteoarthritis than their counterparts who have poor mental health. The data suggests that addressing a person's mental and emotional state may be one avenue to approach the pain management of arthritis sufferers.

The initial impetus for the study stemmed from the observation that discomfort from osteoarthritis was episodic in nature, meaning that the level of pain varied without any obvious connection to the extent that the joint was actually damaged.

In other words, on different days and at any given time, a person can feel little to no pain in their joint, and then suddenly feel severe pain in the same area without any changes in their physical circumstances.

To further understand this phenomenon, researchers followed 266 subjects who were part of a larger longitudinal study that was studying arthritis pain. Through a series of interview, subjects who suffered from either hip or knee discomfort answered questions regarding their psychological state.

The interviews were scheduled weekly over the course of 12 weeks and the information was then used to establish pain and mental health profiles. What scientists observed was that better baseline mental health was associated with less arthritis pain.

Conversely, people in a poor mental state had a higher pain index as well as twice the risk for an increased number of pain flare-ups when compared with people whose mental state was gauged to be good.

Pain is a relatively difficult thing to measure, mainly due to the fact that it is often influenced by a person's perception and subjectivity. In light of this, it makes sense that a person's state of mind may play a role in that outcome.

The current study, published in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, was undertaken in the hopes of reducing the effect of those variables by measuring different pain experiences over time as well as across a population of study subjects. The authors stress that while it appears that a person's mental state may play a role, it is more than likely that pain is in fact a complex interaction of many factors.

Nonetheless, the data does make the case for nurturing a happy, healthy and rewarding lifestyle, which would hopefully affect your outlook on life in a positive way. Not only might it help you deal with any chronic pain you may have, but it would no doubt make your daily life more enjoyable.