Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 15, 2026
Determining Pain Detection and Tolerance Thresholds Using an Integrated, Multi-Modal Pain Task Battery
Published on: April 14, 2016
[Descriptive analysis of chronic pain clinics operating in Spain in 2001]
M J Martínez Zapata1, E Català, M Rigola
1Servicio de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Centro Cochrane Iberoamericano, Hospital Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona. mmartinezz@hsp.santpau.es
Objectives:
To describe the characteristics and care approaches to care of chronic pain clinics operating in Spain in 2001.
Design:
Cross-sectional mail survey of pain clinics in Spain.
Setting:
Chronic pain clinics in Spain.
Statistical Analysis:
Descriptive statistics of pain clinics responding to the questionnaire.
Results:
Fifty-six of the 79 pain clinics (70.8%) responded; 57.1% were in public facilities, 55.4% were affiliated with medical schools, and 53.6% were interdisciplinary units. Both acute and chronic pain were treated by 72.4% of the respondents. Anesthesiology departments supervised 89.3% of the clinics. Only 57.1% had staff permanently assigned to the pain clinic. A mean 2194 (SD 2041) visits by patients were received annually. The most commonly applied treatments were drugs, blocks, spinal techniques, and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. Implantable systems were more frequently used in chronic pain clinics than in mixed pain clinics, and in university-affiliated clinics than in non-teaching facilities (P=0.03 in both comparisons). A psychological approach was used more often in interdisciplinary clinics than in units operated by staff from a single specialty (P<0.01).
Conclusions:
Chronic pain clinics were not evenly distributed throughout Spain. The number of patients treated at pain clinics was high. The various characteristics of pain clinics--such as funding source, interdisciplinarity, university affiliation, and specialization in chronic pain--a were factors that affected the use of certain treatments.
