Trial reportPain medicine (Malden, Mass.)2014
Treating concurrent chronic low back pain and depression with low-dose venlafaxine: an initial identification of "easy-to-use" clinical predictors of early response.
Trial report in Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.), 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Venlafaxine for neuropathic pain in adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015Pooled it
- Opioid Exposure Negatively Affects Antidepressant Response to Venlafaxine in Older Adults with Chronic Low Back Pain and Depression.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2020Trial
- Age-Dependent Efficacy of Electroconvulsive Therapy in Depression: A Longitudinal Study of Symptom Trajectories and Treatment Predictions.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Advances in the assessment and study of suicide in late-life depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Recognition and treatment of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder in patients with treatment-resistant burning mouth syndrome: a retrospective case study.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Case Report: Methylphenidate and venlafaxine improved abdominal nociplastic pain in an adult patient with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and comorbid major depression.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Pharmacotherapy for Spine-Related Pain in Older Adults.Drugs & aging · 2022Review
- Individual differences in pain sensitivity in drug-naive patients with major depressive disorder: an fMRI study.Brain imaging and behavior · 2021Article
- Therapeutic effects of diclofenac, pregabalin, and duloxetine on disuse-induced chronic musculoskeletal pain in rats.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- The Role of Psychosocial Processes in the Development and Maintenance of Chronic Pain.The journal of pain · 2016Review
- Unexplained Painful Physical Symptoms in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder: Prevalence, Pathophysiology and Management.CNS drugs · 2016Review
- Physiological and Psychological Predictors of Short-Term Disability in Workers with a History of Low Back Pain: A Longitudinal Study.PloS one · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveDepression and chronic low back pain (CLBP) are both frequent and commonly comorbid in older adults seeking primary care. Serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) such as venlafaxine may be effective in treating comorbid depression and CLBP. For patients with comorbid depression and CLBP, our goal was to identify "easy-to-use" early clinical variables associated with response to 6 weeks of low-dose venlafaxine pharmacotherapy that could be used to construct a clinically useful predictive model in future studies.
methodsWe report data from the first 140 patients completing phase 1 of the Addressing Depression and Pain Together clinical trial. Patients aged ≥60 with concurrent depression and CLBP received 6 weeks of open-label venlafaxine 150 mg/day and supportive management. Using univariate and multivariate methods, we examined a variety of clinical predictors and their association with response to both depression and CLBP; change in depression; and change in pain scores at 6 weeks.
resultsAbout 26.4% of patients responded for both depression and pain with venlafaxine. Early improvement in pain at 2 weeks predicted improved response rates (P = 0.027). Similarly, positive changes in depression and pain at 2 weeks independently predicted continued improvement at 6 weeks in depression and pain, respectively (P < 0.001).
conclusionsAn important minority of patients benefitted from 6 weeks of venlafaxine 150 mg/day. Early improvement in depression and pain at 2 weeks may predict continued improvement at week 6. Future studies must examine whether patients who have a poor initial response may benefit from increasing the SNRI dose, switching, or augmenting with other treatments after 2 weeks of pharmacotherapy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.