Clinical Efficacy of Physical Factors Combined with Early Psychological Intervention in Treatment of Patients with Chronic Limb Pain

BACKGROUND: To investigate the clinical efficacy of physical factors combined with early psychological intervention in treatment of patients with chronic limb pain. METHODS: A total of 132 patients with chronic limb pain admitted to Affiliated Hospital of Hebei University, Baoding, China from June 2014 to June 2017 were enrolled. The patients were divided into control group (n=66) and observation group (n=66) according to the random number table method. Both groups of patients were treated with physical factors, and the patients in the observation group were also treated with early psychological intervention. PHQ-15 pain factor score, visual analog pain score (VAS score), Hamilton depression rating scale (HAMD) and clinical efficacy were compared between two groups. RESULTS: Difference of PHQ-15 pain factor score, VAS score and HAMD score between two groups before treatment were not statistically significant (P=0.091, 0.161, 0.078). At the end of treatment and at 8 weeks of follow-up, PHQ-15 pain factor score, VAS score, and HAMD score of observation group were lower than those of control group, and the differences were statistically significant (P=0.045, 0.014; 0.011, 0.025; 0.030, 0.015). Total clinical effective rates of observation group and control group were 92.43% and 86.37%, respectively, and the differences were statistically significant (P=0.019). CONCLUSION: Compared with physical factors alone, combination of physical factors and early psychological intervention can significantly alleviate the pain and improve the depression of patients with chronic limb pain. It should be promoted in clinical practices.