Pain Assessment & Treatment

The Berkshire Health Systems-sponsored Multidisciplinary Pain Management Program promotes a comprehensive approach to the assessment and treatment of chronic pain—at biochemical, structural, psychological and spiritual levels. Rather than assuming that a pharmaceutical intervention offers the first, best (and often only) solution to alleviating chronic pain, the Multidisciplinary Pain Management Program allows a comprehensive patient assessment by a team consisting of a physical and rehabilitation medicine physician, a psychologist, an occupational therapist and a social worker. The team will either develop an individualized treatment program itself or, as appropriate, arrange for referral to specialists in behavioral health, substance abuse, neurology, neurosurgery or pain medication.

The goal of the Multidisciplinary Pain Management Program is to make available, through a single telephone call, a differential assessment of patients complaining of chronic pain, in order to identify as accurately as possible the most effective treatment approaches, including in situations where the patient may have one or more comorbidities associated with the chronic pain symptoms, such as (but not limited to) depression, anxiety or substance abuse.