title: Differences in the Association between Depression and Opioid Misuse in Chronic Low Back Pain versus Chronic Pain at Other Locations.
abstract: Patients with chronic pain and depression are more likely to develop opioid abuse compared to patients without depression. It is not known if this association differs by pain location. We compared the strength of association between depression and opioid misuse in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) vs. chronic pain of other location (CPOL). Chart abstracted data was obtained from 166 patients seeking care in a family medicine clinic. Depression was measured by the PHQ-9 and opioid misuse was measured using the Current Opioid Misuse Measure. Pain severity and interference questions came from the Brief Pain Inventory. Cross-tabulations were computed to measure the association between depression and opioid misuse stratified on pain location. Exploratory logistic regression modeled the association between depression and opioid misuse after adjusting for pain location and pain severity and interference. Depression was significantly associated with opioid misuse in CPOL but not in CLBP. Regression results indicate pain interference partly accounts for the depression-opioid misuse association. These preliminary results from a small patient sample suggest depression may co-occur with opioid misuse more often in CPOL than in CLBP. Further research is needed to compare this comorbidity in specific pain diagnoses such as arthritis, fibromyalgia and CLBP.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63104, USA. jaiswala@slu.edu.
authors.forename: Arpana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jaiswal
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63104, USA. scherrjf@slu.edu.
authors.forename: Jeffrey F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Scherrer
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63104, USA. salasj@slu.edu.
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Salas
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63104, USA. cvanden1@slu.edu.
authors.forename: Carissa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: van den Berk-Clark
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63104, USA. fernandos@slu.edu.
authors.forename: Sheran
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fernando
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63104, USA. cherndo@siue.edu.|Department of Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL 62026, USA. cherndo@siue.edu.
authors.forename: Christopher M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Herndon
keywords: chronic pain; depression; opioid misuse; pain location