Chronic pain with anxiety and depression: a comparison between patients attending multidisciplinary pain and rheumatology clinic

Purpose: The objective of the study was to look at the anxiety & depression level amongst patients attending the rheumatology and multidisciplinary pain clinics. Methods: An analytic cross sectional study was performed in population of patients from rheumatology and pain clinics. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and those with chronic pain attended these clinics respectively were assessed using self-administered Chronic Pain Grade (CPG), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) and World Health Organization’s Quality of Life Instrument (WHOQOL-BREF). Results: 88 patients were selected from both rheumatology and pain clinics with 54.5% with RA and the remaining were non RA patients. Anxiety (55.6%) was found to be more prevalent compared to depression (38.6%) among these patients. Pain intensity score (subset of CPG) was a sensitive indicator for the presence of anxiety in chronic pain patients (p=0.001). Disability and psychiatric history were significantly correlated with depression (p<0.005) and anxiety (p<0.001). Patients’ perception of general status was more sensitive to WHOQOL-BREF Physical (p<0.001), Psychological (p<0.005) and Chronic Pain Grade (p<0.001). Conclusion: Anxiety is found to be more prevalent than depression among chronic pain patients although there is significant association between pain with anxiety and depression among these patients