The Evolution of Chronic Pain in the Rheumatology Clinic

Treatment paradigms for chronic pain have changed over the last 30 years. We can start to move in a precision direction by using really simple things like giving a patient with chronic pain a body map and seeing how widespread their pain is. There's a lot of data now that suggests that that measure alone will be highly predictive of whether a peripherally based treatment like surgery or injections or opioids is going to work. If someone has more widespread pain on a body map not just a pain in a single site, the more likely the pain is coming from the brain.