[Pain school. Ambulatory treatment of patients on long-term sick leave due to muscular pain. A 1-year follow-up study].

55 patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain who had been on sick leave for at least six months took part in a four week outpatient treatment programme. The programme was multidisciplinary and consisted of a combination of physical activity, formal lectures about health matters and individual consultations with doctor, psychologist, social worker, nurse and sports instructor. Pretreatment Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and Health Locus of Control showed the patients to have a typical chronic pain profile. The tests did not discriminate between those who had a favourable outcome and those who did not. At one year follow-up, 21 of the 55 patients had returned to work despite unchanged subjective intensity of pain.