Treatment outcomes for workers compensation patients in a U.S.-based interdisciplinary pain management program.

Objectives:  Assess the efficacy of an outpatient-based interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation program for patients with active workers compensation claims.

Patients:  Data were available for 101 patients, primarily with chronic low back pain (75%), who participated in the program.

Methods: Treatment included a 4-week (Monday to Friday), 8-hours/day graded progressive program that included individual and group therapies (pain psychology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, relaxation training/biofeedback, aerobic conditioning, pool therapy, vocational counseling, patient education and medical management). Outcome measures included program completion status, release-to-work status, return-to-work status, total scores on the Beck depression inventory, state-trait anxiety inventory, pain catastrophizing scale, and the McGill pain questionnaire visual analogue scale (MPQ VAS). The majority of the patients (65%) graduated from the program. Pre-postoutcome data were available for those who graduated from the program. For noncompleters, last obtained MPQ VAS was compared with their initial MPQ VAS scores.

Results: Of those completing the program, most patients (91%)were released to return to work; with 80% released to full-time status and 11% released to gradual return. Approximately half (49%) of the program completers returned to work. Paired-samples t-tests showed that program completers had significant reductions in depression (P = 0.000), pain-related catastrophizing (P = 0.033), and pain intensity (P = 0.000), but not in anxiety (P = 0.098). Interestingly, the last obtained (at early discharge/withdrawal) pain intensity scores (M = 70.33) were higher than at baseline (M = 61.20) in the noncompleters. This difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.127) but may be clinically meaningful.

Discussion:  Our results support the efficacy of an outpatient-based 4-week interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation program in decreasing emotional distress, reducing pain intensity, and improving return-to-work status in the majority of completers in this challenging population. Patients reporting increased pain at discharge or those discharged early may have been due to operant factors.