title: Long-term effectiveness of a comprehensive pain management program: strengthening the case for interdisciplinary care.
abstract: Chronic pain, a debilitating medical condition affecting approximately 15% of the US population, leads to individual suffering and costs to society in terms of health care dollars and lost productivity. To examine the effectiveness of a comprehensive pain management program, data from 108 program participants were evaluated. Preprogram, postprogram, and 6-month follow-up data were collected from 80 participants, and preprogram, postprogram, and 1-year data were collected from 46 participants. Outcomes data from several domains were assessed: pain severity, emotional distress, interference of pain on function, perceived control of pain, treatment helpfulness, and number of hours resting. Within-subject repeated-measure analyses of variance found statistically significant findings on the six outcome measures utilized in this study for both the 6-month and 1-year samples. Examination of 95% confidence intervals revealed no overlap in pretreatment scores with 6-month and 1-year outcomes in five of the six domains studied. Mean scores on emotional distress did not maintain statistical significance in the 6-month or 1-year review. Overall, this study strengthens the case for interdisciplinary care for chronic pain management and provides evidence for the long-term effectiveness of this therapy. Furthermore, this study lends support to the notion that interdisciplinary treatments are effective in targeting multiple domains affected by the pain condition.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Oslund
authors.forename: Richard C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: Timothy C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Garofalo
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Behnk
authors.forename: Becky
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Katherine E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Gatchel
authors.forename: Micah
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mahaney
authors.forename: Carl E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Noe