Psychiatric morbidities, sleep disturbances, suicidality, and quality-of-life in a community population with medically unexplained pain in Korea

We examined the psychiatric morbidities, sleep disturbances, suicidality, quality-of-life, and psychological distress of community-dwelling subjects in Korea who had medically unexplained pain. A total of 6510 subjects (age 18-65 years) participated in this study. A medically unexplained pain symptom (MUS-pain) was defined as pain lasting for 6 months or longer that was sufficiently severe to cause significant distress or to materially interfere with normal activities in the previous year, and that could not be explained by a medical condition or substance use/abuse. Diagnostic assessments were based on responses to the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, which was administered by lay colleagues. The presence of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) disorders, sleep disturbances, suicidal tendency, quality-of-life issues, and psychological distress was determined in subjects with and without MUS-pain. There were significant positive associations between MUS-pain and nicotine dependence and withdrawal, alcohol dependence, major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and psychotic disorder. In addition, subjects with MUS-pain reported more sleep disturbances, suicidality, psychological distress, and a poorer quality-of-life than did subjects without MUS-pain. The results of this study suggest that clinicians should carefully evaluate and treat comorbid psychiatric problems in individuals with MUS-pain.