Objective:

To determine the predictive value of psychological variables (depressive symptomatology, catastrophism and expectation) in the success of the therapeutic sacroiliac joint injection for the treatment of chronic low back pain.

Methodology:

An observational, descriptive cross-sectional pilot study (May-June 2017) in new patients with chronic lumbar pain of sacroiliac origin without psychological/psychiatric previous disorder who had never undergone any type of infiltration. An initial clinical assessment was made, a structured questionnaire was applied to determine the presence of the variables expectation, catastrophism and depressive symptomatology. An ultrasound-guided sacroiliac infiltration was scheduled and a new clinical comparative assessment was performed after 4 weeks.

Results:

28 patients were obtained (75% women) with an average age of 60+/-11.8 years. A baseline VAS was 7.64+/-1.42 and basaline EuroQol of 0.451+/-0.202. After 4 weeks of the procedure, the VAS was 6.32+/-1.66 and the EuroQol was 0.594+/-0.242. Although all the variables showed a relevant role in the clinical response, the catastrophism was the greatest associated with poor clinical improvement (p=0.001).

Conclusions:

The detection and early treatment of vulnerability variables such as depressive symptomatology, catastrophism and the level of expectation are determining factor to obtaining better therapeutic outcomes in patients with chronic pain.

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