Multidisciplinary Pain Management

Abstract

The realization that chronic pain and acute pain might have different mechanisms has led to important developments in both research and patients’ care. Basic research paradigms that focus upon long-term changes in tissues and the nervous system have led to useful models for chronic pain. Clinical research has shown that strategies effective for acute pain often fail in patients with chronic pain and that there is utility in the cognitive-behavioral approach to the management of patients with chronic pain. We discuss the history and implementation of comprehensive multidisciplinary pain diagnosis and treat-ment. We conclude with a review of the data on outcomes and cost-effectiveness for multidisciplinary pain management.