A review of follow-up studies of multidisciplinary pain units

Abstract

Chronic pain is a major public health problem in the United States. Estimates from the National Institutes of Health put the cost of chronic pain at 40 billion dollars a year. They estimate that as many as 15 million adults suffer from low back pain with a minimum cost of 5 billion dollars in direct medical costs and 93 million work days lost every year. In an attempt to cope with this massive problem, multidisciplinary pain units have arisen which attempt to address the complex, multi-faceted aspects of a chronic pain problem. The importance of this new treatment approach is made evident by the 1981 overview of multidisciplinary pain centers published by the National Institutes of Health. In this publication, the history and success of these units since their first development by Bonica are evidenced. The purpose of the present paper is to briefly, critically summarize one small aspect of these programs, specifically follow-up analysis of the patients after discharge.

Non-surgical chronic pain treatment outcome: a review

“…Since Fishbain et al (1993), the number of pain treatment outcome studies stands at more than 300. This extensive literature has been reviewed by numerous authors (White & Harth 1996;Bendix et al, 1996;Koes et al, 1996;Manniche, 1995;Aronoff et al, 1982Aronoff et al, , 1988Wells & Miles, 1991). Unfortunately, the conclusions about the efficacy of pain facility treatment on chronic pain or the efficacy of specific pain treatments is not …”

A Follow-up Study of a Comprehensive Behavioural Treatment Programme for Chronic Pain Patients

“…Most studies on the effects of behavioural programmes still lack adequate follow-up data. Aronoff, Evans and Enders (1983) have looked at follow-up studies of pain units and found the results to be generally positive but methodologically problematic. The methodology, in general, suffered from the usual problems in follow-ups such as low return rates, non-blind ratings, and exclusive dependence on global ratings.…”

Das Göttinger Rücken Intensiv Programm (GRIP) Ein multimodales Behandlungsprogramm für Patienten mit chronischen Rückenschmerzen, Teil 4 * ,

“…Chronic low back pain · Multimodal treatment program · Prognosis · Social and health care system Problemstellung Seit dem Entstehen von multidisziplinären Schmerzkliniken vor allem in den USA wurde eine Fülle von Erfahrungsberichten der Behandlung von subakuten und chronischen Rücken-schmerzen veröffentlicht [2,6,9,10,11,12,20,25,28,29,31,41,45,46,47].…”