Should Multidisciplinary Pain Management Programmes Attempt to Reduce Self-Reported Pain in Patients with Chronic Back Pain? The Experience of a Welsh Inpatient Unit
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online September, 1996
Should Multidisciplinary Pain Management Programmes Attempt to Reduce Self-Reported Pain in Patients with Chronic Back Pain? The Experience of a Welsh Inpatient Unit
Given poor outcomes in pain reduction, It has recently been recommended in this Journal that the primary aim of multidisciplinary pain management programmes should be to improve physical functioning rather than attempting to reduce the experience of pain. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a pain management programme in reducing self-reported pain within the overall context of improvements in quality of life, as assessed by the SF36 Health Survey Questionnaire. Logistical and methodological problems in evaluating self-reported pain are discussed.
The results at discharge show a statistically significant reduction in reported pain for the group as a whole and a clinically relevant Improvement in 53.8% of patients. These benefits are maintained up to one-year follow-up, which suggests that pain management programmes should not abandon the attempt to reduce self-reported pain.
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