CHRONIC PAIN MANAGEMENT CLINIC

Objective was to determine how capable pain management physicians at our institution were at recognizing and addressing depression in chronic pain patients. Methods: A quality improvement project was performed utilizing the PHQ-9 tool to determine how often physicians were recognizing depression along with analysis of patient data to determine how depression was treated. Results: Chronic pain physicians appeared capable of recognizing depression; however, there appeared to be discomfort in clinical diagnosis of the disease and a larger gap in comfort with treatment of the disease. Conclusions: As a result of our quality improvement project, we suggest increased interdisciplinary collaboration with psychiatry and improved education in depression amongst all chronic pain providers to improve patient care and outcomes.