Multidisciplinary pain center follow-up study: evaluation with a no-treatment control group.

The long-term efficacy of a multidisciplinary pain management center was evaluated by comparing 20 treated patients with 20 no-treatment control patients who met the program's entrance criteria, wanted to participate, but could not because they did not have insurance coverage. At 1-5 years follow-up, 60% of the treated patients met all of the criteria for success established by Roberts and Reinhardt, while none of the untreated patients did so. Treated patients reported less interference with activities, more uptime, lower pain levels, less depression, and fewer hospitalizations than untreated patients.