The Relationships Between Determination of Treatment Success and Emotional Factors in Patients With Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship of the patient's criteria of successful treatment to emotional factors in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. METHODS Patients who visited our outpatient hospital due to chronic musculoskeletal pain were evaluated using a questionnaire survey. Patients were evaluated with the Patient-Centered Outcomes Questionnaire (PCOQ) to investigate their expectation and criteria for success regarding treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain. Beck Depression Inventory and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were used to check for psychological variables. Correlations among each of the variables were evaluated statistically. RESULTS Patients with higher levels of depression and anxiety needed larger improvements to consider the treatment as a success in the pain domain (depression, r=0.398, p=0.04; anxiety, r=0.447, p=0.02) and emotional distress domain (depression, r=0.617, p=0.001; anxiety, r=0.415, p=0.03), but had lower level of expectation of the treatment in the pain domain (depression, r=-0.427, p=0.01; anxiety, r=-0.441, p=0.004), emotional distress domain (depression, r=-0.454, p=0.01; anxiety, r=-0.395, p=0.04), and interference of daily activities domain (depression, r=-0.474, p=0.01; anxiety, r=-0.396, p=0.04). Patients were classified into 3 clusters based on the importance rating of each domain via a hierarchical analysis. The cluster of the patients with the higher rating of importance across all domains (importance of pain domain, 9.54; fatigue domain, 9.08; emotional distress domain, 9.23; interference of daily activities domain, 9.23) had the highest level of depression and anxiety. CONCLUSION Consideration of psychological factors, especially in patients who require larger improvements in all treatment domains, may be helpful for the successful treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain.