Multidimensional health changes after a multimodal pain rehabilitation program: a registry-based study.
Anna Grimby-Ekman1,2, Malin Kim1,3, Nenad Stankovic4
1Chronic Pain, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Pain Reports
|June 23, 2021
Summary
Multimodal pain rehabilitation shows moderate success, with about a third of patients improving across several health aspects. Higher baseline pain intensity predicts better outcomes, but treatment adjustments for overall success remain unclear.
Area of Science:
- Pain Rehabilitation
- Multimodal Treatment
- Health Outcomes
Background:
- Chronic pain management often involves multimodal rehabilitation programs.
- Evaluating these programs multidimensionally presents a methodological challenge.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate factors predicting successful outcomes in multimodal pain rehabilitation.
- Analyze demographic, pain-related, and treatment-type (individual vs. group) predictors.
Main Methods:
- Retrieved data from 314 patients across 3 Swedish outpatient clinics.
- Dichotomized outcome variables into improved/not improved based on clinical thresholds.
- Used binary logistic regression to analyze baseline predictors and outcome changes.
Main Results:
- Patient improvement varied by outcome, from 34% (pain intensity) to 80% (depression).
- 28% of patients improved in 5-6 outcomes post-treatment and at 1-year follow-up.
- Higher baseline pain intensity correlated with pain improvement but negatively with anxiety/depression improvement. Individual treatment showed better pain intensity improvement than group treatment.
Conclusions:
- Approximately one-third of patients experience significant improvement in multiple health aspects after multimodal programs.
- Depression showed the most improvement, while pain intensity showed the least.
- While patients with more severe baseline status tend to improve more, findings do not currently suggest specific treatment adjustments to enhance overall success rates.
