Screening for Psychiatric and Personality Disorders in Patients with Chronic Back Pain

The current study aimed to report psychiatric and personality disorders, as well as other psychological variables such as pain catastrophising, kinesiophobia and disability in patients with chronic back pain, among adults aged 18 to 65 years (n=205) who were selected for the study using purposive sampling. The instruments used were Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and International Personality Disorder Examination for assessing psychiatric and personality disorders in the population. Pain Catastrophising, Kinesiophobia and Disability were assessed using Pain Catastrophising Scale, Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia and Oswestry Disability Index respectively. To determine the presence of psychological variables, descriptive statistics were used  The results revealed a presence of anxious and depressive features along with kinesiophobia and pain catastrophising in the chronic back pain population.It was seen that among the CBP population, paranoid personality disorders (29%) were most prevalent, followed by anankastic personality disorder ( 27 % ) and Schizoid Personality Disorder (13%) Patients with chronic back pain also showed kinesiophobia and pain catastrophising along with moderate disability.