ABSTRACT
The social and human costs of chronic pain are staggering. During the 20th century, chronic pain has disabled millions of people, costing hundreds of billions of dollars in rehabilitation and lost productivity in addition to untold human suffering (Statistics Canada, 1992). According to some statistics, 80% of these payments have been made for patients with neuromyofascial pain. For the future, there is little evidence to suggest that the rate of growth of chronic soft tissue pain conditions will decrease or even plateau.
