Low back pain is widely recognized as a frequent health concern affecting many individuals in the community, and treatment options are wide-ranging. This study investigated the association of depressive mood with treatment approaches used or preferred by patients with low back pain. The study included 233 patients who presented with low back pain to the Family Medicine and Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM) outpatient clinics of Ankara Training and Research Hospital. Data were collected through face-to-face questionnaires, obtaining information on sociodemographic characteristics, recent medication use for low back pain, non-pharmacological treatments and Visual Analog Scale (VAS). The assessment of depressive symptoms was conducted with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). IBM SPSS Statistics version 25.0 was used for the analyses, with statistical significance defined as p < 0.05. Of the participants, 143 (61.4%) were women and 90 (38.6%) were men, with a mean age of 46.16 ± 13.99 years. For low back pain treatment, 45.1% of patients reported receiving pharmacological treatment, 32.6% reported receiving TCM treatment, and 21% reported receiving physical therapy. Those receiving pharmacological treatment had higher BDI scores (p = 0.006). Pharmacological treatment was more commonly used by women (p = 0.001) and by patients with lower education, poor health perception, chronic disease, inactive employment, and was significantly associated with VAS before treatment, older age and higher body mass index (BMI) (p < 0.001 for variables). Participants with low back pain who preferred pharmacological treatment were predominantly female, older, less educated, had higher BMI, greater pain severity, chronic diseases, and depressive symptoms. It is important to keep in mind that depressive symptoms may accompany low back pain, and patients should be evaluated from a holistic perspective. Assessing depressive symptoms in patients with low back pain may help clinicians develop more personalized and effective treatment strategies.
Ceylan et al. (Fri,) studied this question.