Depression and its correlation with in patients pain in the rheumatology service of a Mexican teaching hospital

The depressive symptoms are associated with chronic pain in this study. A cross-sectional study was performed. A visual analog scale was used to register pain intensity. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Center of Epidemiological Studies (CES-Dr) scale as modified by Eaton and reviewed for use in the Mexican population. The study included 245 patients, with a mean age of 46 years, 86.1% of whom were female. The prevalence of some degree of depression was 55.1%. Patients with fibromyalgia had the highest prevalence of symptoms of depression (78.38%) and major depression (29.73%). Stepwise multiple regressions indicated that the best model (r ² = 0.26) to predict the CES-Dr score included the global pain score (P < 0.0001) and education level (P < 0.004). The Cronbach’s alpha of the CES-Dr was high (α = 0.888). There was moderate correlation (r = 0.442), P < 0.0001 of the CES-Dr numeric score with the intensity of global pain.