ABSTRACT
Interdisciplinary pain treatment programs were in existence before the advent of the subspecialty of Pain Medicine/Management. Acute pain may last days to weeks, even two to three months or so. Chronic pain, in existence for three to six months or more, is in itself a disease. It is the cause of a great deal of financial distress secondary to increased medical system utilization, loss of work, and familial disintegration coupled with significant costs to insurers and for both medical services and medications. The pain treatment armamentarium includes medication; physical therapy; occupational therapy; interventional anesthesiological procedures; psychological treatment; neuropharmacological treatment; work hardening and much more. With the development of chronicity, the initial pain-related diagnosis becomes only one of several diagnoses—including, possibly, depression, anxiety disorder, and iatrogenic substance abuse—all of which must be identified and treated for the patient to achieve some return to function, wellness/work or reduction in symptomatology.
