1997 People with chronic pain have usually seen a family doctor and several other specialists as well. Eventually they are referred to neurologists, orthopedists, or neurosurgeons. Many specialists today refer chronic pain patients to pain clinics for treatment. Over 800 such clinics have opened their doors in the United States since a world leader in pain therapy established a pain clinic at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1960.
Pain clinics differ in their approaches.
Generally speaking, clinics employ a group of specialists who review each patient's medical history and conduct further tests when necessary. The aim is to reduce pain medication and so improve the patient's pain problem that when he or she leaves the hospital it is with the prospect of resuming more normal activities with a minimal requirement for analgesics and a positive self-image. Contrary to what many people think, pain clinic patients are not malingerers or hypochondriacs. They are men and women of all ages, education, and social background, suffering a wide variety of painful conditions. Patients with low back pain are frequent, and so are people with the complications of diabetes, stroke, brain trauma, headache, arthritis, or any of the rarer pain conditions.