Longitudinal Outcomes for a 10-Week Interdisciplinary Pain Rehabilitation Program

Chronic pain is an important public health problem. Interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation programs (IPRPs) demonstrate immediate and long-term improvements in pain, functioning, and overall quality of life for individuals with chronic pain. However, data on treatment durability for different program models and patient populations are limited. The purpose of this study was to examine long-term outcomes of a 10-week IPRP.

Three hundred ninety-eight adults with chronic pain were treated at a rehabilitation hospital between February 2019 and May 2021 in an intensive 10-week outpatient IPRP consisting of physical therapy, occupational therapy, pain psychology, and medical management. Participants completed measures of pain intensity, pain interference, depressed mood, anxiety, physical functioning and pain catastrophizing at intake, discharge, and 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, and 12-month post-treatment.

A total of 34.7% of participants returned postprogram surveys at 3 months, 26.9% at 6 months, 17.6% at 9 months, and 15.6% at 12 months. Participants were primarily female (79.1%), White/Caucasian (79.4%) and married (51.5%) with an average age of 49.30±15.29 years. The results demonstrated statistically and clinically significant improvement across all outcome measures comparing intake to discharge. While there was some deterioration of treatment gains over time, all measures remained improved at all time points compared with intake.

A 10-week IPRP model can improve pain and functioning in a population of patients with heterogenous chronic pain conditions in a community setting, providing durable improvements over time. These results add to the body of literature supporting IPRPs as an effective intervention for patients with chronic pain.