[With the Characteristics of Chronic Pain Patients, Can the Therapeutic Effect of Antidepressant Duloxetine be Predicted?].

Background: Duloxetine, an antidepressant, is used for treatment of pain, but the factors related to its effectiveness are not well known, and therefore we have performed a retrospective study.
Methods: Over a 22-month period from June 2012 patients with pain lasting for 3 months or more, with an NRS of 4 or higher, and given duloxetine within 3 months from their first diagnosis, were extracted from the medical records. These patients were compared and studied regarding their scores of the HADS (hos- pital anxiety and depression scale) at the time of first visit, duration of the disease, type of patient, and treat- ment effect after 1 month.
Results: The subjects were 61 patients, and they were categorized based on the presence of anxiety, the presence of dysphoria whether from organic or inor- ganic condition, and the duration of the disease, and no significant difference in the effectiveness of duloxetine was found.
Conclusions: Duloxetine had an overall effectiveness of 50.8%, regardless of the presence of anxiety or depression, the duration of the disease and the type of diseases.