OBJECTIVE

To assess the effect depression has on outcomes after cervical epidural steroid injections (CESIs).

DESIGN

Retrospective review of a prospectively collected database.

SETTING

Single institution tertiary care center.

SUBJECTS

Fifty-seven patients with cervical spondylosis and cervical radicular pain who were deemed appropriate surgical candidates but elected to undergo CESI first were included.

METHODS

Twenty-one of 57 (37%) patients with depression (defined as Zung Depression Scale >33) were included. Patient-reported outcomes including Neck Disability Index (NDI), numeric rating scale (NRS) for arm pain (AP), NRS for neck pain (NP), and EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D) were collected at baseline and three-month follow-up. Minimal clinically important differences were then calculated to provide dichotomous outcome measures of success.

RESULTS

Overall, 24 and 28 patients achieved at least 50% improvement in AP and NP, respectively. In terms of disability, 25/57 (43.9%) patients achieved >13.2-point improvement on the NDI overall. In patients with depression, 4/21 (19.0%) and 5/21 (23.8%) achieved at least 50% improvement on the NRS for AP and NP, respectively, compared with 20/36 (55.5%) and 23/36 (63.8%) in patients without depression. This difference was statistically significant for both pain measures (P < 0.002 AP, P < 0.006 NP). Statistically fewer patients, 5/21 (24%), with depression achieved ≥13.2-point improvement on the NDI compared with 20/36 (55%) nondepressed patients (P < 0.01). There was no difference in outcomes between groups on the EQ-5D.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with cervical spondylosis and comorbid depression who undergo CESI are less likely to achieve successful outcomes in both pain and function compared with nondepressed patients at three months.