The mediator role of psychological morbidity in patients with chronic low back pain in differentiated treatments

This study analyzed the mediating role of psychological morbidity and the variables that discriminated low
versus high disability, in patients receiving physiotherapy and acupuncture. A total of 203 patients answered
measures of illness and medication representations, coping, depression, anxiety, quality of life, and functional
disability. Morbidity was a mediator between functional disability and quality of life. Treatment consequences
and quality of life, in the acupuncture group, and emotional representations, quality of life, depression,
anxiety, and active strategies for pain relief, in the physiotherapy group, discriminated patients with low
versus high disability. These results have important implications for identifying high-risk patients.