Pain

An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Multidisciplinary Care in Family Medicine Centers

The goal of this proposed project is to compare the effectiveness of two different approaches to treating chronic pain in the primary care setting. The first involves the combination of physician education with on-site patient-centered education and multidisciplinary treatment. The second approach involves standard care extended by provider education only. The following objectives will be targeted in this study:

1. To reduce the level of pain-related impairment and improve acceptance of pain among patients in the primary care setting who report a pain condition that has persisted for more than three months.
2. To increase family medicine physicians’ use of pharmacological and non-pharmacological guidelines for the early detection and management of chronic pain.