Social work and the treatment of chronic pain.

The severity and prevalence of chronic pain is a growing concern for all health care professionals. An outpatient program that offered cognitive-behavioral coping skills training in a group setting was studied as a possible social work treatment for chronic pain patients, and the results were encouraging. Such treatments usually are available only in hospital pain clinics and research centers, which reduce treatment availability to patients in other settings. Social workers could provide services in a wider variety of settings to a large and growing population. As social workers realize the continuous interplay of physical, emotional, and cognitive factors in the experience of pain, they will identify appropriate practice roles for working with chronic pain patients.