Chronic pain is a major health care and social problem. For many chronic pain patients, medical-based solutions have failed and contribute to iatrogenesis and somatization. While a more comprehensive biopsychosocial approach is required, these patients rarely have benefits covering biopsychosocial-based treatments. This inequality or resources represents a significant problem for patients, the health care system, and primary care providers. An effective educational approach currently exists that instructs patients about self-management strategies from the biopsychosocial perspective. Developed by the project consultants, this course focuses on changing a set of critical misconceptions and false expectations about chronic pain that drives patient disability and increases health care costs. This proposal adapts and extends this classroom-based course to create an Internet-based patient education program, thereby bringing this effective approach to the broader chronic pain market. The project creates an on-line tool to assess individual beliefs, provide individualized instruction based on the assessment, and track patient outcomes. The investigators will also provide a strategy to provide long-term support and reinforce treatment gains. Improved outcomes through patient education occur in a number of chronic diseases. If successful, they will apply this model to other chronic disease conditions.
