Citation

Yoshida K, Kato S. Jpn. Med. Assn. J. JMAJ 2011; 54(2): 112-116.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Japan Medical Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The underlying cause behind prolonged low back pain may be depression. Patients suffering from depression have high risk of suicide, and there have been several reports on suicides linked to pain. Moreover, among people who had suffered unendurable low back pain, there have been reports of suicidal thoughts as well as cases of suicides just after their pain is alleviated. As such, the issue of suicide related to low back pain leaves much to discuss. Complaints of "heaviness" in the lower back and head, and even the entire body, are typical of patients with depression. As with the physical pain, the sensation of heaviness is a severe affliction for the patient, and should be treated with all due caution. When such patients are referred to psychiatrists by orthopedists or anesthesiologists, they are often diagnosed as psychogenic low back pain. Instead of using the umbrella term "psychogenic low back pain," physicians should always consider the individual psychiatric problems that lie behind the low back pain. When referring a patient to psychiatric treatment, one preferred method is to inform the patient that he/she is not being completely turned over to psychiatrists and the original treating physicians will continue to monitor his/her health. Such approach will reassure the patients and help psychiatric treatment to proceed more smoothly.

Language: en

Keywords

human; Depression; Psychiatry; professional practice; depression; suicide attempt; disease severity; review; disease association; clinical feature; cognitive therapy; physical disease; medical decision making; low back pain; doctor patient relation; psychiatric diagnosis; diagnostic error; high risk patient; pain assessment; diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders; validity; Complaints of heaviness; Functional somatic syndrome (FSS); Low back pain