Journal of clinical psychology
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It is not clear whether the psychological disturbances associated with chronic low back pain are the cause or the result of the chronicity. It is also not clear whether increasing duration of low back pain is associated with depression. ⋯ Increasing chronicity is associated with significant increases on MMPI Hs, D, HY, PT and MA scales, and on STAI Trait Anxiety scale. These results suggest that chronicity leads to the development of psychopathological characteristics and that these characteristics include a heightened awareness of somatic functioning and the vegetative aspects of the depressive syndrome, but that there is no increase in depressive mood or in the perception of the pain itself.