title: Rates and Correlates of Unemployment Across Four Common Chronic Pain Diagnostic Categories.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine rates and correlates of unemployment across distinct common chronic pain diagnoses.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were analyzed from a sample of 2,382 patients with chronic pain in the Quebec Pain Registry (QPR). Patients were grouped into the following diagnostic categories based on their primary pain diagnosis recorded in the QPR: musculoskeletal pain; myofascial pain; neuropathic pain, and visceral pain. Analyses were performed to examine the associations between pain diagnosis, patient demographics, pain intensity, depressive symptoms, and unemployment status.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pain diagnosis, age, marital status, education, pain intensity, and depressive symptoms were each significant unique predictors of unemployment status in a hierarchical logistic regression analysis; the addition of depressive symptoms in this model contributed to the greatest increment of model fit.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Depressive symptoms are associated with unemployment across a number of common chronic pain conditions, even when controlling for other factors that are associated with unemployment in these patients. Depressive symptoms, as a modifiable factor, may thus be an important target of intervention for unemployed patients with chronic pain.
authors.affiliation: The Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada, giladih@post.bgu.ac.il.
authors.forename: Hili
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Giladi
authors.forename: Whitney
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Yoram
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shir
authors.forename: Michael J L
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Sullivan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology; D004522:Educational Status; D005157:Facial Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008875:Middle Aged; D059352:Musculoskeletal Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D011792:Quebec / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D014478:Unemployment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D059265:Visceral Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult