Comorbid depression and anxiety symptoms in chronic pain patients and their impact on health-related quality of life

Abstract

Background: Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience. Both chronic pain and depression result in substantial disability reduced HRQoL and increased health care costs and utilization. Objectives: To evaluate the strength of the association between depressive and anxiety symptoms and chronic pain, and to investigate the impact of these symptoms on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in chronic pain individuals. Methods: Pain was assessed by means of a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale. Quality of life was assessed by means of the SF-36. Results: Four hundred patients were studied, mean age 45.6 ± 11.4 years and 82.8% female gender. According to HAD, 70% had anxiety and 60% depression symptoms. SF-36 showed mean scores ≤ 50% for all the domains. Patients with severe pain/extreme (70.4%) had a higher frequency of anxiety than those with pain selvagem/moderada (59,5%). This was a statistically significant (p = 0.027). However, the frequency of depression did not reach statistical significance when both groups were compared p = 0.109). Discussion: Depressive/anxiety symptoms and pain together have worse clinical outcomes than each condition alone.