Open AccessThe Association of Depression with Pain‐Related Treatment Utilization in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis
Author(s) -
Alschuler Kevin N.,
Jensen Mark P.,
Ehde Dawn M.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
pain medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.893
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1526-4637
pISSN - 1526-2375
DOI - 10.1111/j.1526-4637.2012.01513.x
Subject(s) - medicine , depression (economics) , patient health questionnaire , chronic pain , association (psychology) , population , physical therapy , depressive symptoms , rating scale , psychiatry , anxiety , psychology , economics , macroeconomics , developmental psychology , environmental health , psychotherapist
Objective To better understand the association of depression with pain treatment utilization in a multiple sclerosis ( MS ) population. Design. Cross‐sectional survey. Setting Community‐based survey. Participants Convenience sample of 117 individuals with MS . Main Outcome Measures Participants provided demographic information, descriptive information on utilization of pain treatments, pain intensity ratings on a 0–10 numerical rating scale, and depressive symptoms on the P atient H ealth Q uestionnaire‐9 ( PHQ ‐9). Results Participants reporting clinical levels of depressive symptoms ( PHQ ‐9 ≥10) reported that they tried more pain treatments previously relative to participants with PHQ ‐9 <10; however, the two groups did not differ in the number of treatments they were currently using. Additionally, participants with PHQ ‐9 ≥10 had more visits to providers for pain treatment relative to the group with PHQ ‐9 <10. In subsequent analyses, results showed that these differences were no longer significant after controlling for level of pain intensity. Conclusions The results demonstrate that depression is not associated with higher pain treatment utilization. These findings support the assertion in previous studies that the mechanism by which depression impacts medical utilization is through increased appointments for nonspecific complaints, not for specific medical problems. While this suggests that treating depression may not be helpful in reducing pain treatment utilization specifically, it remains important to treat depression to reduce pain‐related suffering and medical utilization more broadly.