Abstract
Objectives :
The objective of this study was to investigate the correlation of the scores on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Ⅰ (STAI-Ⅰ), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Ⅱ (STAI-Ⅱ), Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI), and Core Seven Emotions Inventory-short form (CSEI-s) scales with pain improvement.

Methods :
We retrospectively investigated the medical records of 66 traffic accident inpatients who satisfy the selection criteria. They had received Korean medical treatment including acupuncture, electroacupuncture, pharmacopuncture, herbal medicine, and Chuna during hospitalization. STAI-Ⅱ, BDI, and CSEI-s scores on hospital day 1, and STAI-Ⅰ and numerical rating scale(NRS) scores on hospital day 1, 4, 7, and 10 were used for analysis. Pain improvement was evaluated by difference in NRS scores between hospital day 1 and hospital day 4, 7, 10.

Results :
1. The thought(思) score showed a significant positive correlation with neck pain NRS score on hospital day 1, and BDI score showed a significant positive correlation with low back pain NRS score on hospital day 1.

2. The STAI-I score on hospital day 1 showed a significant negative correlation with neck pain improvement on hospital day 7 and 10.

3. The thought(思) score on hospital day 1 showed a significant positive correlation with low back pain improvement on hospital day 10.

4. The STAI-I score on hospital day 4 showed a significant negative correlation with low back pain improvement on hospital day 4.

Conclusions :
The STAI-Ⅰ, BDI, and CSEI-s (思) scores showed significant correlations with pain or pain improvement. This study may be used in the research on psychological state and pain management of traffic accident patients and for patient education. Large-scale, well-designed studies need to be conducted in future to strengthen the results in this regard.