Objectives: to measure the pain intensity, identify the disability and depression levels in people with chronic back pain and to correlate these variables. A cross-sectional, descriptive and exploratory study was undertaken at the Pain Treatment Clinic of the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto Hospital das Clínicas, between February and June 2012, after receiving approval from the Ethics Committee at the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing.
Method: sixty subjects with chronic back pain participated. The instruments used were: the 11-point Numerical Category Scale, the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory. To analyze the data, the arithmetic means, standard deviations and Spearman's correlation coefficient were calculated.
Results: the findings show that the participants presented high pain, disability and depression levels. The correlation between pain intensity and disability and between pain intensity and depression was positive and weak and, between disability and depression, positive and moderate.
Conclusion: the study variables showed moderate and weak indices and the mutual correlations were positive.