This study was done for identifying the factors which affect psychologic symptoms of low back(LBP) patients. The study subjects were 43 work-related low back pain patients, 28 work-related non-low back pain patients and 47 general low back injury patients. The study material is SCL 90-R for checking psychologic symptoms and questionnaire for obtaining general information about the subjects. The data were analyzed by model of analysis of covariance adjusted by several variables such as gender, age, education and marital status and then compared the least square means of symptom score between groups. To identify the factors that affect psychologic symptom, duration of suspension, return to work and interaction factor of these two variables were analyzed by multivariate model and we calculated partial correlation coefficient of these variables. As a result, work-related LBP patients showed higher score of symptoms in somatization, depression and psychosis than work-related non-LBP and non-work-related LBP. Duration of suspension and return to work were significant explanatory variables for psychologic symptom score of work-related LBP. Then, we may conclude that the treatment and rehabilitation programe for work-related LBP should cover the strategy of early return to work.
Back Injuries ; Back Pain ; Depression ; Education ; Humans ; Low Back Pain* ; Marital Status ; Psychometrics* ; Psychotic Disorders ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Rehabilitation ; Return to Work

PURPOSE: An altered mental state is a common chief complain at the emergency departments (EDs). But it is difficult to find out the reason for this mental change. Serum biomarkers are an alternative way to diagnose the reason for mental change. We determined the values of four biomarker for diagnosing the mental changes of the patients seen at the ED: BNP, d-dimer, MMP-9 and S100beta. METHODS: From September 2007 to March 2008, we prospectively enrolled 42 adult patients who visited the ED of Hospital because of an altered mental status. We categorized the patient's mental state into 5 steps (alert to coma), and we took samples of blood at the time of visiting the ED. We then measured the 4 serum markers. The clinical records were reviewed to analyze the usefulness of these 4 serum markers. RESULTS: We enrolled 42 patients (24 females and 18 males). Thirty-three people were diagnosed with stroke and 7 people were diagnosed to not have stroke. The measurements of BNP, d-dimer and MMP-9 were on average 136.5+/-231.7 pg/mL, 2052.2+/-2071.8 ng/mL and 294.9+/-311.7 ng/mL, respectively, and S100beta was mostly measured below 100 pg/mL. After statistic analysis, only MMP-9 had diagnostic value for stroke, and BNP & d-dimer had a negative relation to making the diagnosis of stroke. CONCLUSION: MMP-9 is useful for making the different diagnosis of acute stroke in patients with an altered mental status at the ER. There is the probability of metabolic causes for ED patients' depressed mentality when the BNP and ddimer levels are highly elevated, but further study is needed to confirm this.
Adult ; Biomarkers ; Consciousness Disorders ; Emergencies ; Female ; Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products ; Humans ; Prospective Studies ; Stroke