Chronic Back Pain and Work Disability: Vocational Outcomes Following Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation

Studies indicate that work disabled chronic back pain patients out of work for longer than three months have a reduced probability of returning to work. The escalating personal and economic costs (indemnity and health care) associated with such long term disability have facilitated efforts at multiple levels to prevent and more effectively manage work disability. Multidisciplinary rehabilitation (MDR) targeted at return to work represents one such approach. The approach is based upon a multidimensional conceptualization of work disability and integrates medical, physical, psychological, educational and vocational interventions to increase physical function, reduce pain, increase stress coping skills and facilitate return to work. Seven outpatient multidisciplinary rehabilitation outcome studies for chronic back pain were identified that met the following selection criteria: 1) diagnosis of back pain, low back pain, spinal disorder (specific and nonspecific diagnosis), 2) chronic back pain of either longer than three months since injury or longer than three months absence from work, 3) use of an outpatient multidisciplinary rehabilitation approach that included some combination of medical management, physical conditioning, pain and stress management, vocational counseling/placement and education regarding back safety and health, and 4) work reentry was the primary focus of outcome. These were reviewed to determine the effectiveness of MDR in terms of return to work outcome. Analyses revealed that an average of 71 percent of work disabled chronic back pain patients who completed a multidisciplinary rehabilitation program were working or involved in vocational rehabilitation efforts at 12 month follow-up in contrast to an average of 44 percent in corresponding comparison groups. While these studies suggest the clinical utility of a multidisciplinary approach as compared to usual care in facilitating return to work for chronic back pain patients, the literature was characterized by several methodological limitations including the absence of randomization in the majority of studies, use of insurance company denials as control groups, heterogenous samples in terms of duration of work disability, job availability at discharge, extent of impairment and disability, age and duration of pain disorder, lack of specification as to exact treatment delivered in the control or usual care groups and varying definitions of return to work outcome. Research on predictors of return to work outcome following MDR were identified and included variables in five categories: demographics, medical history, physical findings, pain and psychological characteristics. The literature provides support for the use of integrated approaches that target the medical, physical, ergonomic and psychosocial factors that can exacerbate and/or maintain work disability. Future research should address current methodological limitations in the literature and focus on: 1) identifying critical treatment components of such approaches, 2) developing innovative screening methods to identify high risk cases to facilitate earlier more targeted efforts to assist such individuals, and 3) consider variations in the staging of various combinations of interventions in an effort to develop more cost-effective variations in the multidisciplinary approach.