Martha M. C. Castro
Professora da Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública e da Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA)
Lucas C. Quarantini
Médico da Unidade de Psiquiatria, Hospital Universitário Professor Edgard Santos, UFBA.
Carla Daltro
Professora do Departamento de Medicina Interna da Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública (EBMSP).
Milke Pires-Caldas
Psicóloga da Unidade de Psiquiatria, Hospital Universitário Professor Edgard Santos, UFBA
Karestan C. Koenen
Professora do Departamento de Saúde, Sociedade e Desenvolvimento Humano, Escola de Saúde Pública de Harvard, Boston, Ma, EUA
Durval Campos Kraychete
Coordenador do Ambulatório de Dor da UFBA.
Irismar R. de Oliveira
Professor titular do Departamento de Neurociências e Saúde Mental, UFBA.
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.
Keywords:Chronic pain, depression, anxiety, health-related quality of life.