title: A preliminary study of multidimensional pain inventory profile differences in predicting treatment outcome in a heterogeneous cohort of patients with chronic pain.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective was to evaluate whether the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) is effective for predicting response to interdisciplinary treatment in a heterogeneous group of patients with chronic pain. Changes in patients' profiles to a predominantly adaptive coping status after treatment also were assessed.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective study was conducted of patients with an array of pain conditions. A standard evaluation battery, including measures of self-reported pain and disability, psychosocial functioning, helpfulness of the program, and medication use, was used for all patients before and after treatment. The MPI status of patients was evaluated and differential response to treatment was assessed.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-five consecutive patients with chronic pain were evaluated before and immediately after participation in an interdisciplinary pain treatment program. This heterogeneous pain-condition cohort was also differentiated on the basis of the MPI to evaluate potential differential response to treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results revealed significant improvement among these patients with chronic pain when a comprehensive interdisciplinary pain-management program was administered. This improvement was seen across the variety of outcomes evaluated, including narcotic medication use. Most important, the MPI subgroup classification did not significantly predict the degree of positive treatment outcome; all subgroups improved.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although there were major differences in psychosocial functioning before treatment, the MPI was not found to significantly predict response to interdisciplinary treatment in a heterogeneous group of patients with chronic pain. Thus, a comprehensive interdisciplinary treatment program may achieve its full effectiveness across a wide array of pain/disability-related outcome variables, regardless of initial MPI profile categorization.
authors.affiliation: Eugene McDermott Center for Pain Management, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 75390-9044, USA. robert.gatchel@utsouthwestern.edu
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Gatchel
authors.forename: Carl E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Noe
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pulliam
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Robbins
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Deschner
authors.forename: Noor M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Gajraj
authors.forename: Akshay S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Vakharia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods; D010348:Patient Care Team; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome