Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Sep 6;11(3):145-151.
doi: 10.1055/s-0041-1734385. eCollection 2021 Jul.

Do Patients of Chronic Low Back Pain have Psychological Comorbidities?

Kritika Singhal  1 , Krishna Prasad Muliyala  1 , Abhijit P Pakhare  2 , Prateek Behera  3 , John Ashutosh Santoshi  3
Affiliations

Do Patients of Chronic Low Back Pain have Psychological Comorbidities?

Kritika Singhal et al. Avicenna J Med. .

Abstract

Background Individuals with chronic pain have been reported to have an increased incidence of psychological morbidities. We aimed to examine the prevalence of anxiety, depression, disability, alexithymia, insomnia, and sleep quality in patients having chronic low back pain (LBP) and study their association with the severity of pain and any disability arising from it. Methods This descriptive study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital setting. Fifty adults with nonspecific LBP of > 6-week duration were included. Study instruments employed were patient health questionnaire-9 for depression, generalized anxiety disorder-7 for anxiety, visual analogue scale (VAS) score for pain, Oswestry disability index (ODI) to assess disability, Toronto alexithymia scale-20 for alexithymia, and insomnia severity index and Pittsburgh sleep quality index for insomnia. Descriptive results were expressed as numbers, means, and proportions. Association study between variables was performed using Fisher's exact test. Results Mean ODI score was 31.54% (95% CI, 26.09-36.99); mean VAS score was 6.08 (95% CI, 5.35-6.81). Insomnia of varying severity was found in 29 patients. Sleep quality was reported as good by 23 patients. One patient had alexithymia. There was significant association between the level of disability and depression, anxiety, insomnia, and sleep quality. The severity of pain had significant association with insomnia but the association with anxiety, depression, alexithymia, and sleep quality was not significant. Conclusions Patients with chronic LBP do have associated psychological comorbidities of varying extent. A "patient-centric" approach when treating patients with chronic LBP is necessary, so that appropriate evaluation of psychiatric and psychosocial comorbidities, sleep problems, and quality of life is done as part of their routine management to ensure the desired outcomes.

Keywords: alexithymia; anxiety; comorbidity; depression; insomnia; low back pain; psychological.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest None declared.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The number and percent of participants with chronic low back pain (LBP) and various psychological comorbidities.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. National Collaborating Centre for Primary Care (UK) Low Back Pain: Early Management of Persistent Non-specific Low Back Pain. London, United Kingdom: Royal College of General Practitioners2009 - PubMed
    1. Hong J H, Kim H D, Shin H H, Huh B. Assessment of depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and quality of life in patients with chronic low back pain in Korea. Korean J Anesthesiol. 2014;66(06):444–450. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kamal K C, Alexandru D O, Kamal D. Managing low back pain in primary care. Curr Health Sci J. 2020;46(04):396–404. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sharma R . 2012.
    1. Yu G Z, Ly M, Karim H T, Muppidi N, Aizenstein H J, Ibinson J W. Accelerated brain aging in chronic low back pain. Brain Res. 2021;1755:147263. - PMC - PubMed