Abstract

The objective of this study was to demonstrate the relationships between relaxation, pain intensity and level of depression. The study was conducted among forty five (N = 45) patients with pain, including 23 females and 22 males aged 60–80 years. The studied participants were randomized in three groups; each group consisted of fifteen subjects with equal number of males and females. The first group participated in relaxation training and standard physiotherapy, the second group participated only in standard physiotherapy and the control group was a „placebo” group who had con­versations with relaxation trainer, without training and standard physiotherapy. Pain intensity was measured twice every day using VAS scale, before and after the activities. The level of depression was verified at the baseline and after two weeks using Geriatric Depression Scale.The analysis of the differences between average values for dependent samples was performed using Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test while the analysis for independent samples was carried out using Kruskal Wallis test. The correlations between the studied parameters were calculated using Spearman’s correlation ratio. The study showed pain intensity decrease in all studied groups, to the large extent in the relaxation and physiotherapy group (49.4% and 44.2% respectively). The level of depression significantly decreased in the relaxation group (7.9%). Depression level is a significant factor related to pain intensity. Relaxation resulted in the decrease in pain intensity and depression level.

Key words:

Relaxation, chronic pain, level of depression, physiotherapy