How Depressing Can Chronic Pain Be?: A Cross-sectional Study in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Sabah

ABSTRACT

@#Introduction: Chronic pain remains a public health issue as patients endure this condition while it affects the patients’ life either physically or mentally. Evidence has demonstrated that depression coexist with chronic pain; yet depression is often insufficiently acknowledged, indirectly causing this mental health problem to be undertreated. In this paper we aim to determine the local prevalence of depression among patients with chronic pain in a tertiary hospital in Sabah, East Malaysia. Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study. Past patient consultation records of adult patients who attended a tertiary pain clinic in Sabah for the first time are included. Socio-demographic data were collected, as well as scores from painDetect Questionnaire (PD-Q) and 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Results: From the 222 individual data collected, more than half (64.9%) were female. 79 (35.6%) were between the age of 18 to 40. The types of pain presented were almost equally distributed between nociceptive pain (38.3%), mixed pain (33.3%) and neuropathic pain (28.4%). Prevalence of depression among chronic pain patients was 15%. Patients with neuropathic pain are significantly associated with signs of depression (p<0.001). Female patients are significantly more prone to depression as compared to male (p = 0.024). Conclusion: The high prevalence of depression among chronic pain patients warrants the attention of physicians. Physicians should be vigilant and actively screen for depression in patients with chronic pain.