Therapists' and chronic pain patients' perceptions of treatment outcome

Pain is a complex phenomenon which is influenced by multiple factors; likewise, assessment of chronic pain patients' response to treatment is influenced by many variables. A physician, psychologist, physical therapist, and occupational therapist rated the extent of recovery of 40 chronic pain patients who had spent 4 to 6 weeks in an inpatient chronic pain treatment program. Each patient also rated his/her own degree of improvement. In addition, therapists and patients reported which factors were the primary determinants of their outcome ratings. Although therapists rated the patients as significantly more improved than the patients rated themselves, there was still a high degree of similarity between therapists' and patients' view of recovery. Therapists and patients were in high agreement concerning which patients were classified as treatment successes or failures. Furthermore, activity level and ability to cope with pain were frequently endorsed by therapists and patients as important determinants of recovery rating. Contrary to a previous report, the results of this study suggest that pain patients are not necessarily poor judges of (their own) treatment results. Perhaps more importantly, this study supports the use of a broad-based multidimensional approach to assessing treatment outcome for chronic pain patients.