345: Multidisciplinary Care and Psychological Correlates in Chronic Pain

Topic: Clinical Science
Subtopic: Non-specific to any diagnosis, Non-pharmacological treatments, Assessment and Measurement of Pain/Nociception, Treatment/management

Background and Aims: In Japan, the number of individuals suffering from chronic pain is estimated to be nearly 27 million, and the annual productivity loss among workers with chronic pain has been reported to reach 1.953 trillion yen. Because multidisciplinary treatment has been shown to be effective for chronic pain management, our institution established a multidisciplinary chronic pain treatment team in 2019, which has functioned as an official in-hospital team since September 2021.
In this study, we retrospectively analyzed patients who received team-based interventions between September 2021 and the end of June 2025.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of patients who were treated by the multidisciplinary team from September 2021 to June 2025. At our institution, all patients complete standardized questionnaires at the time of intervention, including DN4, CSI, PCS, HADS, and SF-MPQ-2. Pain intensity was recorded using the visual analog scale (VAS) at each intervention.
Extracted variables included questionnaire scores, sex, age, professions involved in treatment, and disease classification based on the ICD-11 chronic pain categories.

Results: A total of 76 patients were analyzed, of whom 62 (81%) were female. Disease categories included chronic primary pain (n=30), chronic postsurgical or post-traumatic pain (n=8), chronic secondary musculoskeletal pain (n=14), chronic secondary visceral pain (n=1), chronic neuropathic pain (n=15), and chronic secondary headache or orofacial pain (n=8). Pain physicians and nurses were involved in all cases, while psychologists and psychiatrists participated in 35 cases each. Pearson correlation analysis showed the strongest association between anxiety and depression, and between anxiety and the affective component of SF-MPQ-2, whereas DN4 showed minimal correlation with psychological measures.

Conclusions: Most patients receiving multidisciplinary chronic pain treatment were female and represented a population strongly influenced by biopsychosocial factors centered on chronic primary pain. Psychological analysis demonstrated a strong association between anxiety and depression, as well as a close relationship between anxiety and the affective component of SF-MPQ-2, suggesting the importance of affective distress in chronic pain.

References: Gatchel RJ, et al. The biopsychosocial approach to chronic pain. Psychol Bull. 2007.
Kamper SJ, et al. Multidisciplinary biopsychosocial rehabilitation for chronic low back pain. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015.
Dworkin RH, et al. Development of the SF-MPQ-2. Pain. 2009.
Zigmond AS, Snaith RP. The hospital anxiety and depression scale. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1983.
Bouhassira D, et al. DN4 questionnaire. Pain. 2005.

Presenting Author: Yumiko Takao
Submitting Author: Yumiko Takao

Senior Author: Yumiko Takao

IASP 2026 Global Year theme of Neuropathic Pain: No

• Hiroai Okutani: M.D. ,Ph.D. - Hyogo Medical University
• Munetaka Hirose: M.D., Ph.D. - Hyogo Medicai University
• Fumiya Sato: M.D. - Hyogo Medical University
• Kazunori Miyamoto: M.D., Ph.D - Hyogo Medical University
• Mayu Kobata: M.D. - Hyogo Medical University
• Kazumi Sato: NA - Hyogo Medical University
• Yoko Doi: NA - Hyogo Medical University
• Kazuhisa Kajiwara: NA - Hyogo Medical University,