Interdisciplinary approach to chronic pain management

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ABSTRACT

Chronic pain is a significant and costly problem all over the world. Despite significant progress in identifying the best treatment approaches, there are still significant obstacles that must be overcome in order for the treatment to be truly beneficial. There is evidence to support the cost-effectiveness of interdisciplinary treatment programs for patients with chronic pain. Creating an interdisciplinary service is not easy and certainly is much more complicated than simply placing different services in one clinic. However, when such interdisciplinary programs are instituted, they increase the effectiveness of chronic pain management significantly; bring satisfaction to doctors and are economically attractive (interdisciplinary treatment programs for patients suffering from pain not only provide the best clinical treatment, but are also the most cost-effective in the long run).

KEYWORDS:

• Interdisciplinary pain management
• biopsychosocial pain model
• chronic pain
• cost-effective pain management

Declaration of interest

The contents of the paper and the opinions expressed within are those of the authors, and it was the decision of the authors to submit the manuscript for publication. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.