2012

Physicians and behavioral health professionals have accepted psychological treatments since the 1970s because of inconsistent research findings related to the success of reducing chronic pain by medications alone (Puder, 1988) and research indicating the persistence of pain despite medical treatment (Wall, 1979). As early as 1982, Melzack and Wall found flaws in the medical model as applied to chronic pain treatment, and Thorn (2004) reported weaknesses in the diagnostic tools used by physicians and mental health professionals (i.e., the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [4 th ed. text rev.] and the International Classification of Diseases [10th rev.]) because of the lack of biopsychosocial variables in the diagnosis of pain. In recent years, multidisciplinary approaches to pain management became commonly accepted in nonmalignant pain treatment (Marcus, 2000). The idea of incorporating a variety of psychosocial therapies in the treatment of pain is advantageous to patients for whom only one of two types of therapies may not address their situation (Jensen, 2011).