Prediction of pain rehabilitation outcomes by motivation measures

This study attempted to predict reduction in pain description, pain behaviour, and depression by measures of motivation and previous vocational development. Twenty-one patients randomly selected from an inpatient pain programme were given pre-admission the Goldberg Scale, a 2-h clinical interview synthesizing educational and vocational history, work values, interests, motivation to work, realistic assessment of pain disability and optimistic compared to pessimistic outlook towards the future. Repeated measures consisted of the McGill-Melzack Pain Questionnaire, the Pain Disability Index, and the Beck Depression Inventory, given at admission, discharge and follow-up. Pain was classified by the IASP categories. The Goldberg Scale predicted at p less than 0.05 level for reduction of subjective pain description on MMPQ and reduction of depressive symptoms on Beck, but failed to predict for reduction of pain behaviour at 0.05 level. A measure of motivation may be a useful adjunct to the broad array of measures to predict outcome in pain management programmes.