The economic utility of clinical psychology in the multidisciplinary management of pain

Chronic musculoskeletal pain is the leading sources of disability worldwide, imposing an enormous burden to both societies and healthcare systems (Vos et al., 2012). Direct medical expenses and indirect costs due to losses in work productivity exceed $200 billion in the US (Ma et al., 2014; Park et al., 2016) and are a major source of concern in Europe (Breivik et al., 2013). Mean per capita costs vary from country to country (see Table 1), but are estimated to double the expenses for the care of matched controls (Gore et al., 2012; Hong et al., 2013). Notably, their impact is directly linked both to the severity of the condition and to the presence of mental comorbidities, and can be inflated by concomitant opioid abuse (Baumeister et al., 2012; Manchikanti et al., 2013; Stockbridge et al., 2015; Rayner et al., 2016).