Collaborative Care Helps Ease Chronic Pain

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The intervention group also had a care manager -- in this study, it was a psychologist -- who would periodically contact patients to assess whether or not there had been improvement.

The researchers assessed the patients using numerous pain, disability and depression measurements at baseline and then again a year later. In one -- the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire -- about 22 percent of people in the intervention group reported a 30 percent or more decrease in pain compared to 14 percent in the usual care group, the study found.

Although seemingly modest, such improvements can be "meaningful for people with long-standing pain," Dobscha said. And, he pointed out that many of these people had been in pain for 15 years or longer. So, an intervention for someone who had a shorter-term pain problem or in a younger population might even work better.

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"This was a very positive study. These patients had a level of care that is nearly parallel to a pain care center in a primary care setting," said Dr. Christopher Gharibo, medical director of pain management at the New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City. This type of collaborative care "can certainly reach out to a much greater number of people, may be more convenient for the patients and can help decrease health care costs," he said.

More information

Learn more about getting relief from chronic pain from the American Academy of Family Physicians.

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