Association among muscleskeletal pain, disability and psychosocial disorders

Abstract

Pain (acute or chronic) is the most frequent symptom in muscleskeletal disorders and it is considered a personal, subjective and multidimensional experience. Chronic pain is directly related to disorders such as depression, anxiety, kinesiophobia and catastrophic thoughts, which affects the disability, functionality, psychological and social aspects of the individual. Also, it's possible a relationship between the number of pain areas and severity of pain. However, it was not found in the literature studies regarding to the relationship between disability, pain and emotional aspects in patients with local and widespread pain. The objective of this study is to establish associations between pain and aspects related to disability, functionality and psychological disorders, as kinesiophobia, catastrophic thoughts, anxiety and depression, in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. It will be recruited 100 women aged 18 to 45 who have chronic musculoskeletal pain and that are attended in the Physiotherapy service of the Secondary Health Care Service of the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto. They will be divided into groups according to their clinical condition: Fibromyalgia, Low Back Pain, Shoulder Impingement Syndrome, Neck Pain and Knee pain. The groups will be submitted to the general questionnaire, the Graded Chronic Pain Scale (EGDC), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK) and evaluation of pressure pain threshold by algometry. Other tools will be applied specifically to each group according to the profiles of patients: Neck Desability Index (NDI), Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) (low back pain), Quick Dash Questionnaire (shoulder pain), Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) (Knee) and Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ). We suppose that the association between disability, psychological disorders and pain could help to guide better treatment strategies, since improvement in pain levels could influence disability and psychological disorders levels.