Chronic Widespread Pain In Patients With Occupational Spinal Disorders: Prevalence, Psychiatric Comorbidity, And Association With One-year Treatment Outcomes

Abstract

Chronic Widespread Pain (CWP) is estimated to affect 4.1% - 13.5% of the general population. Compared to those who are pain-free or have localized pain, those with widespread body pain have been found to higher rates of psychiatric disorder, greater pain intensity, and greater disability. Treatment programs for CWP patients often have high drop-out rates and have only achieved modest results. The present study sought to compare demographic characteristics, psychiatric comorbidity, and one-year treatment outcomes of patients with chronic disabling occupational spinal disorers (CDOSDs) meeting criteria for CWP to those who fail to meet criteria. Within this CDOSD cohort (n = 2730), 32% of the patients (n=878) met criteria for CWP. Psychiatric evaluation revealed that the CWP groups had a higher prevalence of Major Depressive Disorder and Anxiety Disorder, relative to the non-CWP group. For program completers, CWP was not associated with lower rates of program completion or less successful one-year socioeconomic outcomes. Additionally, logistic regression analysis identified variables that differentiated, with 83 % accuracy, between non-CWP and CWP patients.