Comorbid anxiety and depression disorders in patients with chronic pain.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the frequency of anxiety and depression disorders in patients with chronic pain.


METHODS
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%).


CONCLUSIONS
Psychiatric comorbidities are prevalent in patients suffering chronic pain.
Castro
Martha
M
Pain Clinic, Professor Edgard Santos University Hospital, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, BA, Brazil. marthamcastro@uol.com.br
Kraychete
Durval
D
Daltro
Carla
C
Lopes
Josiane
J
Menezes
Rafael
R
Oliveira
Irismar
I
D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors