ABSTRACT
The life of a patient with chronic back pain (CBP) is marked by uncertainty, stress, and even desperation. CBP patients often suffer major disruption of their lives, loss of employment, high divorce rates, frequent emotional disturbance, and dependency on narcotic pain medication. A growing body of research indicates that aspects of patients’ emotional, interpersonal, and vocational presentation can strongly influence the outcome of spine surgery. Several studies demonstrate that there exists a viable, effective alternative to spine surgery—the interdisciplinary chronic pain management program (CPMP). In many ways, the CPMP for a potential spine surgery candidate is similar to that for any other pain condition. The program is multidisciplinary in nature, aimed at improving function, reducing or eliminating narcotic medication use, emotional stabilization and learning cognitive-behavioral techniques for coping with pain as well as reducing “maladaptive thinking.” Historically, one of the main goals of CPMPs is the reduction or elimination of narcotic medications.
