The impact of pain perception on the quality of life and depressive symptoms in patients with musculoskeletal pain

Introduction: The course, severity and treatment response of the musculoskeletal pain varies in each individual. In promoting these differences and increasing the success in treatment, the causes that both reveal the pain and prolong the healing period should be investigated and the psychosocial properties as well as the organic causes should be investigated. In this context; The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of pain perception to sociodemographic characteristics, quality of life, depression and anxiety level in patients admitted to Adnan Menderes University Medical Faculty Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation outpatient clinic with musculoskeletal pain. Materials and Methods: A total of 302 patients with musculoskeletal pain who agreed to participate in the study were evaluated with sociodemographic and clinical interview form, Visual Analogue Scale (GAS), Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) Scale, Short Form-36 Health Screening (SF-36). A statistical program was used to analyze the data. In descriptive analyzes, percentages, mean and standard deviation (SS) and median values were used. T-test and Pearson Correlation test for the analysis of data that conforms to normal distribution; Spearman Correlation and Mann-Whitney U tests for those who do not; The chi-square test was used for the comparison between the groups and the correlation analysis was used to determine the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable and the logistic regression analysis for the significant data. Significance level was accepted as 0.05. Results: Of the participants, 212 (70.2%) were female and 90 (29.8%) were male and the mean age was 48.5 ± 15.1 years (range 18-86 years, median 49 years). The mean pain perception of the participants according to VAS was 7.7 ± 1.8, and 73.5% of the patients had a higher pain perception. The mean duration of pain was 6,7 ± 9,02 years and 41,7% of the pain duration was 5 years and over. 87.7% of the participants had pain in more than one area and low back pain was the most common pain. The mean physical quality of life assessed by SF-36 was 42.9 ± 22.6, and the mean mental quality of life was 50.5 ± 23.4. The mean anxiety and depression risk scores of the patients were 8.1 ± 5.3 for anxiety and 6 ± 5.2 for depression. 37.7% (114 people) of the participants had HAD anxiety scores of 10 or more and anxiety risk was high; 37.4% (113 people) had HAD depression subscale score of 7 and over and had a high risk of depression. As the age and number of children increased, the duration of pain increased in women, housewives and retirees and those who were not satisfied with their profession. As the level of education decreased, the perception of pain increased and the physical quality of life was low in those with high pain perception. Regression analysis of the factors related to pain perception and duration of pain showed that the low quality of physical life increased the pain perception and prolonged the duration of pain. Conclusions: Based on these results, musculoskeletal pain treatment to improve the success; by evaluating the quality of life, anxiety and depression risk, improvement of quality of life, depression and anxiety treatment should be added for treatment purposes, psychosocial factors should be assessed and necessary interventions should be made to changeable risk factors. Key words: musculoskeletal pain, quality of life, anxiety, depression