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Behavioral Symptom Clusters, Inflammation, And Quality Of Life In Chronic Low Back Pain Patients, Anitha Saravanan

Dissertations

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a prevalent condition, often involving an inflammatory process. Those with CLBP frequently experience behavioral symptoms, including depressed mood, fatigue, and sleep disturbance, which may exacerbate pain and reduce quality of life (QOL). The purpose of this study was to identify behavioral symptom clusters (depressive mood, fatigue, poor sleep) in individuals with CLBP, and to determine whether there are differences in pain, QOL and inflammation (plasma IL-6) based on cluster membership. CLBP patients (N=69; age = 56±13 years) completed measures of pain, depressive mood, fatigue, sleep, and QOL. Blood was obtained for IL-6 measurement. LCA …