Improved life satisfaction and pain reduction: Follow-up of a 5-week multidisciplinary long-term pain rehabilitation programme

Abstract

BackgroundMultidisciplinary rehabilitation programmes can improve physical functioning and help patients with long-term pain back to work. Little is known, however, of the extent to which such rehabilitation also affects life satisfaction, pain severity, and disability. We wanted to evaluate if a 5-week rehabilitation programme for patients with long-term pain improves life satisfaction and decreases pain severity and disability.Methods The subjects were 164 patients aged 18–65 years from a pain rehabilitation clinic. Most of them were referred from primary care units. One group of repeated tests was used. Participants were asked to fill out the LiSat-11 checklist and parts of the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI), including pain severity, at admission, at discharge, and 1 year after the rehabilitation programme.Results Satisfaction with life as a whole, and six of ten LiSat-11 domains improved during the follow-up, though none reached the levels for the general population. MPI subscales pain severity, pain interference, life control, and affective distress improved, whereas no change was observed for general activity. Patients older than 38 years decreased more in MPI affective distress than younger patients. Gender, pain severity, and work status before the programme did not significantly influence the outcome.Conclusions The results indicate that multidisciplinary rehabilitation improves life satisfaction, reduces pain severity, and reduces negative psychological, social, and behavioural effects of pain. These outcome variables relate to domains known to be of interest for patients and should therefore be considered for evaluation of rehabilitation programmes for long-term pain.

<p>Who benefits from multimodal rehabilitation &ndash; an exploration of pain, psychological distress, and life impacts in over 35,000 chronic pain patients identified in the Swedish Quality Registry for Pain Rehabilitation</p>

“…The Swedish MMRPs are based on the available evidence that this type of intervention is more effective than usual care;87–93 the effect sizes are generally small to moderate. Smaller uncontrolled studies have reported significant effects after MMRP on several of the variables investigated here 94–97. This study was not primarily performed to evaluate the effectiveness of MMRP, which requires randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews/meta-analysis.…”

<p>Factors Associated with Life Satisfaction in Older Adults with Chronic Pain (PainS65+)</p>

“…Using LiSat-11, previous clinical studies have reported that patients with chronic pain have low life satisfaction 4,7,10 and the prevalence of dissatisfied persons among these patients were much higher than in the general population. 4 This difference was much smaller in the aged general population.…”

“…9 In the pain management and rehabilitation context, it is known that the rational aspect of life satisfaction is a result of an individual's coping and adaption process. 10,11 There is reason to believe that older adults perceive their life satisfaction lower than young people due to their accumulating exposure of disease burden and the general negative effects of aging. However, research has found that in high-income countries people in later life were more satisfied with their lives than middle-aged people.…”

Mobile Health App (AGRIPPA) to Prevent Relapse After Successful Interdisciplinary Treatment for Patients With Chronic Pain: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

“…In response, many treatment programs have added relapse prevention strategies that aim to preserve treatment gains over time (eg, [ 17 , 18 ]). In the context of chronic pain treatment, examples of such strategies include self-practice exercises [ 19 , 20 ], booster sessions [ 21 , 22 ], or encouragement of patients to take notes during treatment [ 23 , 24 ]. However, the integration of these particular strategies within the treatment program as well as an underlying theoretical rationale regarding how it may prevent relapse are often not described in clinical studies.…”