title: Selected Aspects of Mental Health of Elderly Patients with Chronic Back Pain Treated in Primary Care Centers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Improvement of the effectiveness and efficiency of chronic back pain therapy is a continuing challenge on an international scale. The aim of the present study was to tentatively assess mental health of patients with chronic back pain treated in primary care centers.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study enrolled 100 persons over 50 years of age. The back pain group consisted of 53 patients with chronic back pain and the control group consisted of 47 pain-free persons. The assessment of mental health used a Polish version of the international Goldberger's General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). ANOVA (1- and 2-factor) analysis of variance, Tukey's test, and Pearson's simple correlation were used to analyze the significance of differences, with the significance level set at α=0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All patients with chronic back pain, regardless of their age and gender, displayed poorer mental well-being compared to the control group: their overall score was higher by over 7 points than in persons without back pain (F1.96=14.8; p<0.001). Men with back pain were significantly more susceptible to depression than women (F2.96=5.5; p<0.05), compared to the control group. The duration of back pain also showed a significant (p<0.05) direct correlation with the overall mental health score from the questionnaire. Mental health was considerably poorer among patients occasionally (p<0.001) and regularly (p<0.05) consuming analgesics than among persons who did not do so.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study revealed that mental health was markedly poorer in patients with chronic back pain than in healthy controls. A preliminary assessment of aspects of mental health should be given more attention in the rehabilitation of patients with chronic back pain treated in primary care center outpatient clinics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiotherapy, Warsaw University of Physical Education, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cabak
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosocial Foundations of Rehabilitation and Bioethics, Warsaw University of Physical Education, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dąbrowska-Zimakowska
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Biomechanics, Warsaw University of Physical Education, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Paweł
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tomaszewski
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiotherapy, College of Rehabilitation, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Łyp
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiotherapy, College of Rehabilitation, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Ryszard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kaczor
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiotherapy, College of Physiotherapy, Wrocław, Poland.
authors.forename: Wiesław
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tomaszewski
authors.affiliation: Second Medical Faculty with the English Division and the Physiotherapy Division, Institute of Bioethics and Medical Humanities, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fijałkowska
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic and Traumatology, Clinical Hospital of Interior, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Ireneusz
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kotela
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000628:therapy; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D059408:Pain Management; D011044:Poland; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome