Distress and sciatica

Presence of anxiety and depression (“distress”) at the time of initial diagnosis of sciatica predict worse outcome of both surgical and non-surgical treatment three years after the onset of pain according to a report in the July issue of journal Pain. Presence of anxiety and depression (“distress”) at the time of initial diagnosis of sciatica predict worse outcome of both surgical and non-surgical treatment three years after the onset of pain according to a report in the July issue of journal Pain. The authors speculate that the reason could be lower self-management efforts and maladaptive coping strategies. In fact previous studies have shown that adaptive coping skills training produces improvement in pain that lasts for months and years beyond the actual training. This training is usually performed by cognitive psychologists.