Health-economic Evaluation of Interventional Pain Management Compared to Pain Rehabilitation

Chronic pain is one of the major health problems globally, according to the WHO 'global burden of disease' studies. Previously, the investigators have performed a study on a feasible approach to be able to treat zygapophyseal joint pain in the thoracic region, similar to the established methods for treatment in the lumbar and cervical regions which have been published. The study showed that there was a significant improvement in health related quality of life (HRQoL) after treatment, and that there were no difference in the results depending on if it was the cervical, thoracic or lumbar region that was treated. The study had ethical approval (Dnr 2012-446-31M) and is registered here at clinicaltrials.gov.

Another study explored the health economic aspects of interventional pain management (IPM). The investigators aimed to do this in comparison with pain rehabilitation programs, and therefore further ethical approval was searched and gained (2012-446-31M, 2017-542-32, 2018- 507-32) An health-economic evaluation of only IPM was performed showing that patients after treatment of diagnosed pain-focuses in zygapophyseal joint pain not only improve their HRQoL but they also reduce their medication, reduced their health-care consumption and gained in ability to work. The cost per quality adjusted life years gained was below the threshold for cost-effective health-care according to the threshold-levels defined by the national Board of Health and Welfare in Sweden. But the investigators need a larger population to select from in order to get matched controls among patients that have been through pain rehabilitation programs.

This study therefore aims to explore the national register of pain rehabilitation both in order to find matched controls and in order to make a cost-effectiveness study of pain rehabilitation program as it is performed in Sweden.