To assess quality of life (QoL) in two groups of patients with long-term musculoskeletal pain with and without psychiatric co-morbidity and to compare them with a reference group of normative controls. The patients in both study groups were sick-listed full or part time for 3 months or more.
The patients were recruited from a company health service and consulting psychiatry. A generic QoL questionnaire, the SF-36, was used to assess QoL. Each group was compared with age- and gender-matched normative controls.
Both groups reported a pronounced impairment of QoL (p