Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience in response to actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage. In the traditional medical model, we seek to diagnose the cause of pain and eliminate it with the expectation that pain elimination will follow. It can also be effective for chronic, recurrent pain such as that accompanying rheumatoid arthritis or migraine, in which pain flare-ups can resolve with time or medical therapy, but recur episodically. For chronic pain , however, eliminating the presumptive cause often does not result in pain elimination. Repeated cycles of cause identification and elimination reinforce the futility of cure.
Patients often become depressed, angry, and hopeless.
Occupational and social life roles may erode. Previously successful coping strategies no longer serve the patient against an onslaught of difficulties as life spirals out of control. This condition is called chronic pain syndrome . Management of chronic pain syndrome therefore requires that physical, psychological, and social rehabilitation take place in concert with medical management. The goals of MPPs depart from the goals of pain treatment in the traditional medical model.