Aronoff Gerald M, Evans Wayne O, Enders Pamela L
Boston Pain Center, Massachusetts Rehabilitation Hospital, 125 Nashua Street, Boston, Mass. 02114 U.S.A.
Pain. 1983 May;16(1):1-11. doi: 10.1016/0304-3959(83)90081-7.
Chronic pain is a major public health problem in the United States. Estimates from the National Institutes of Health put the cost of chronic pain at 40 billion dollars a year. They estimate that as many as 15 million adults suffer from low back pain with a minimum cost of 5 billion dollars in direct medical costs and 93 million work days lost every year. In an attempt to cope with this massive problem, multidisciplinary pain units have arisen which attempt to address the complex, multi-faceted aspects of a chronic pain problem. The importance of this new treatment approach is made evident by the 1981 overview of multidisciplinary pain centers published by the National Institutes of Health. In this publication, the history and success of these units since their first development by Bonica are evidenced. The purpose of the present paper is to briefly, critically summarize one small aspect of these programs, specifically follow-up analysis of the patients after discharge.
慢性疼痛是美国一个主要的公共卫生问题。美国国立卫生研究院估计，慢性疼痛每年造成的花费达400亿美元。他们估计，多达1500万成年人患有腰痛，每年直接医疗费用至少50亿美元，并且损失9300万个工作日。为了应对这一重大问题，多学科疼痛治疗单元应运而生，旨在解决慢性疼痛问题复杂、多方面的情况。美国国立卫生研究院1981年发表的多学科疼痛中心综述表明了这种新治疗方法的重要性。在该出版物中，自博尼卡首次创建这些治疗单元以来的历史和成效得到了证明。本文的目的是简要、批判性地总结这些项目的一个小方面，具体而言是对出院后患者的随访分析。
