Evaluation of psychological status in chronic low back pain: comparison with general population

Multiple studies have documented a strong association between chronic low back pain and psychopathology including personality disorders, depressive disorders, anxiety, and somatoform disorders along with non-specific issues such as emotion, anger and drug dependency. However, depression, anxiety and somatization appear to be crucial. There are no controlled trials in interventional pain management settings. This study was designed to evaluate 40 individuals without pain or psychotherapeutic drug therapy, Group I, control group; and Group II, chronic low back pain group with 40 chronic low back pain patients. All the participants were tested utilizing Pain Patient Profile (P3). Significant differences were found among various clinical syndromes with generalized anxiety disorder, somatoform disorder, and depression, with 0% vs 20%, 0% vs 20%, and 5% vs 30% in Group I and Group II consecutively. This evaluation showed that clinical syndromes were seen in a greater proportion of patients with chronic low back pain emphasizing the importance of evaluation of the patients for generalized anxiety disorder, somatoform disorder, and for depression.