Program for managing chronic pain. II. Short-term results.

A program for treating inpatients who had chronic pain resulted in significant improvement in 79% of them by the time of their dismissal. At the time of short-term follow-up (6 months), however, this improvement rate had diminished to 50%. It was observed that this type of chronically disabled person can return home and increase work-related activity without returning to previous patterns of drug use and repeated hospitalizations.