Is It Worth It? A Comparison of an Intensive Interdisciplinary Pain Treatment and a Multimodal Treatment for Youth with Pain-related Disability.

OBJECTIVE Evaluate the effectiveness of an intensive interdisciplinary pain treatment (IIPT) day-hospital program as compared to an outpatient multimodal treatment (MMT) for youth with chronic pain. METHODS A non-randomised pre-test post-test with control group design was used. A battery of patient-oriented measures assessing pain interference, quality of life, and depressive symptoms was completed at treatment commencement, and 3-, 6- and 12- months post-treatment by 44 youth enrolled in the IIPT and 138 youth engaged in the MMT, with various chronic pain conditions. Data were analysed using longitudinal mixed-effects models. RESULTS The main outcomes were the score difference from baseline of patient-oriented measures across three timepoints within 12-months of intervention initiation for both treatment groups. IIPT participants demonstrated greater improvement in pain interference, as compared to MMT at 3 and 12 months. Initially, health quality of life scores improved similarly in both groups, but greater improvement was seen in the MMT group at 12 months. Depressive symptom scores did not improve with either intervention. Only pain interference scores reached statistical and clinical significance difference levels. DISCUSSION This study supports the benefits of specialized rehabilitation interventions, including both MMT and IIPT programs, for youth with chronic pain. The findings also suggest that IIPT might have greater long-term impact for helping youth, in particular those with high pain interference scores.