It can make heartburn feel more severe.
In a 2018 study published in the journal Gastroenterology, researchers tested the esophageal acidic pH values of patients with depression who self-reported as having acid reflux, too. Despite complaints of acid reflux pain, nearly half of the patients studied had normal pH values—indicating that they didn’t actually suffer from the condition.
So, while people with depression are no more likely to have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) than their anxiety-free counterparts, even a mild case of heartburn comes with serious—often debilitating— discomfort. That’s another effect of being more sensitive to physical pain.
