Who would have thought that something like a bunion or hallux valgus on the foot would affect your mental health status?
Well it does. This study looked at 102 people and used the Beck Depression Inventory and measured the angle of hallux valgus and found the greater the ankle of the hallux valgus, the more depressed. Unfortunatly they did not include a group of people of a similar age, gender and body weight (etc) to compare them to, but never-the-less the results are interesting.
It is a chicken-and-egg situations. Did having the pain, discomfort, shoe fitting problems, embarrassment, etc contribute to the symptoms of being more depressed? Or is there a genetic risk profile for depression, that is also a risk factor for hallux valgus? Either mechanism is probably plausible. Either way, there are mental health issues involved and as part of the holistic management of any patient they need to be taken into account.