798

A preliminary investigation of an abbreviated interdisciplinary pain management program

Christine Gagnon, PhD1, Steven Stanos, DO2, Lynn Rader, MD2, and R. Norman Harden, MD1. (1) Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, 446 E Ontario, Suite 1011, Chicago, IL 60611, (2) Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, 1030 N Clark Street, Suite 320, Chicago, IL 60610

Rising healthcare costs, personal financial considerations, amount of physical and emotional needs as well as patient availability have caused us to develop an abbreviated interdisciplinary pain management program. A modified half day (1-2 days per week) program has been developed to accommodate these needs in contrast to an all day, every day program. We assess the efficacy of such a program in 40 subjects; however, fifteen of those were missing either pre (n = 6) or post treatment data (n = 9). Treatment included individual 45-minute appointments with psychologists, physical therapist, occupational therapist, biofeedback therapists, and physicians. Patients also participated in group nursing lectures and Feldenkrais classes. Outcome measures included the total scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Catastrophizing subscale from the Coping Strategies Questionnaire, and the treatment team's assessment of the patient's report of pain, activity tolerance, and overall progress in the program. Paired-samples t-tests showed significant reductions in depression [t(25) = 3.749, p = .001], anxiety [t(24) = 2.123, p = .044], and pain-related catastrophizing [t(22) = 2.356, p = .028]. Staff's assessments were available for 16 of the patients, and indicated that pain behavior was “better” in 46% of the patients, activity tolerance was “better” in 54% of the patients, and overall progress was “good” in 58% patients. Thus, this preliminary data suggests that the modified interdisciplinary program is effective in improving emotional functioning and pain. However, definitive conclusions require a larger sample size.