Commentary on: Effects of Lumbar Discectomy on Disability and Depression in Patients With Chronic Low-Back Pain

Dear Editor, In your June 2011 issue, we found an interesting study by Farzanegan et al. entitled, “Effects of lumbar discectomy on disability and depression in patients with chronic lowback pain.” (1). The authors demonstrated the beneficial role of surgery in chronic back pain for patients with disability and depression. Patients with chronic back pain are usually also depressed (2). Evaluating these patients is difficult. Evidence is currently lacking to recommend optimal methods to evaluate these patients. Farzanegan et al. used the Beck depression inventory to evaluate depression and Rolland and Morris’s questionnaire to measure disability. These are simple, fast, and reliable methods for screening back pain in the general population (3,4). Depression and chronic pain have been thought to worsen the prognosis of low-back surgery.