Chronic pain: Which patients may a pain-management program help?

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Abstract
Whether chronic-pain patients who are likely to benefit from a pain-management program can be identified before treatment was determined by studying differences discernible at the beginning of treatment, a group who succeeded and did well at 1 yr follow-up (n = 34) and a group who failed (n = 35). The 2 groups differed significantly (P < 0.01) in regard to duration of pain, work time lost, number of operations, subjective pain level and drug dependency. Deviations on the MMPI [Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory] were greater in failures than in successes; but the differences were not statistically significant. A 7-item rating scale based on these data differentiated a favorable group (including 71% of the successes) from an unfavorable group (including 86% of the failures). This scale should be helpful in selection of candidates for a pain-management program, even though it needs further validation.