[New information and communication technologies in the treatment of chronic pain]

To review the literature for evidence of the effectiveness of chronic pain treatments that apply new information and communication technologies, namely, the Internet and computer-assisted treatments.

We carried out a systematic search of the literature indexed on MEDLINE and PsycInfo.

Eight articles were selected. In 5, the new technologies were used to implement treatments online while in the other 3 studies technology was used to create forums for patient discussion.

In general the results of the studies reviewed demonstrate that treatments based on new technologies are effective and efficient and that patients hold positive attitudes toward them. However, reviewed results were not always consistent, probably because of differences in how the studies were designed.