[Health-related quality of life (SF-36) in chronic low back pain and comorbid depression]

Abstract

The purpose is to clarify if comorbidity of depression reduces health-related quality of life (SF-36) in patients with chronic low back pain (CR) and if those comorbid patients (CR+DE) benefit from multimodal pain treatment. Two groups (CR and CR+DE) each with 29 patients are compared over 6 months on study days 0, 21 (inpatient) and 180 (outpatient). Differences exist only at days 0 and 21, not at day 180, with group CR exhibiting higher SF-36 values in each case. Group CR+DE improves in the inpatient phase and especially in the outpatient phase and therefore over the entire study period more than group CR which increases solely in the inpatient phase. The comorbid group is more severely affected by their illness, but improves very constantly. The outpatient improvement suggests a good long-term prognosis.