Data analysis and interpretation of orofacial pain data on existing surveys continue. Section 1907 of the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993 has requested that the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), acting through the Director of the National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR) and through the heads of other NIH agencies, conduct a study of the frequency and health care costs of chronic pain conditions in the United States. The results of this study are to be submitted in a report to Congress. The focus of this study is on the following selected chronic pain conditions: (1) chronic low back pain, (2) reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) syndrome, (3) temporomandibular (TM) joint and muscle disorders, (4) postherpetic neuropathy, (5) painful diabetic neuropathy, (6) phantom pain, (7) post-stroke pain. The objectives of this study involve four evaluations: (1) of existing classifications, case definitions, diagnostic criteria, and case ascertainment procedures in the context of the phenomenology and clinical spectrum of these conditions and associated health care utilization, (3) of what is known about the direct medical care costs of these conditions, and (4) of the current state of the epidemiologic and economic science of chronic pain from the perspectives of basic, clinical, population, health services, and economic research. To achieve these objectives a series of background papers and reviews has been commissioned. These papers and reviews will be discussed at a Workshop in FY 1996 in the Greater Washington, D.C. area. An analytical summary of these papers will provide the basis of the report to Congress. In April, 1995, due to scheduling conflicts, this congressionally-mandated study was transferred to the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Coordination, Office of the Director, NIDR.
