Comorbid anxiety and depression disorders in patients with chronic pain

Abstract

-Objective: To evaluate the frequency of anxiety and depression disorders in patients with chronic pain. Method: Patients receiving care at the pain clinic of the Federal University of Bahia between February 2003 and November 2006. The MINI PLUS -Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview was used to evaluate the patients and establish psychiatric diagnoses. Results: 400 patients were evaluated mean age was 45.6±11.37 years; 82.8% were female, 17.3% male; 48.5% were married; 55.1% were Catholics; and 40.5% had only high school education. Of these 29.9% reported intense pain and 70.8% reported suffering pain daily. The most frequent medical diagnosis was herniated disc (24.5%), and 48.5% of patients had been undergoing treatment at the pain clinic for less than 3 months. Comorbidities found were depressive episodes (42%), dysthymia (54%), social phobia (36.5%), agoraphobia (8.5%) and panic disorder (7.3%). Conclusion: Psychiatric comorbidities are prevalent in patients suffering chronic pain. Pain has been one of the major concerns of human beings since the beginning of humanity; however, the interpretation of pain varies from one culture to another 1 . Chronic pain is defined in the literature as pain that persists beyond the time required to cure the lesion; pain that is continuous and recurrent. It is generally characterized as vague, ill-defined and aggravated by environmental or psychopathological stress factors 2 .Chronic pain plays a significant role in incapacitating the individual, making it impossible for him/her to perform the physical or mental activities previously carried out normally. As a result, changes develop in the individual's quality of life in general and disorders and symptoms of anxiety and depression become evident 3 . Studies have shown that patients with chronic diseases and women have a much higher risk of developing psychiatric comorbidities compared to the general population 4 .Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the frequency of disorders of anxiety and depression in patients with chronic pain.

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