I. Do chronic pain patients' perceptions about their preinjury jobs determine their intent to return to the same type of job post-pain facility treatment?

Objective: To demonstrate that chronic pain patients' (CPPs') perceptions about their preinjury jobs determine their intent to return to the same type of job post pain facility treatment. Design: A total of 225 CPPs completed a series of rating scales and yes/no questions relating to their preinjury job perceptions and a question relating to intent to return to the same type of preinjury job post-pain facility treatment. The CPPs were broken down into subgroups (males, females, college males, noncollege males, college females, noncollege females), and within each subgroup those not intending to return to the same type of pre-injury job were compared to those intending to return on the preinjury job perception questions. In addition for the whole group, stepwise discriminant analysis was used to predict who planned to return to the preinjury job utilizing the job perceptions questions. Setting: Multidisciplinary Pain Center. Patients: Consecutive chronic pain patients. Results: For the whole group, CPPs not intending to return were more likely to complain of job excessive physical demands, job satisfaction, and job dislike. Job perception complaints that were significantly different between the intending and not intending to return groups differed between the subgroups. For example, noncollege males not intending to return were more likely to complain of excessive physical demands only versus satisfaction and liking as significant items for college males who did not intend to return. Within the discriminant analysis, the combination of job satisfaction, excessive physical demands, employee conflicts, job liking, job dangerousness, supervisory conflicts, job stress, and age classified 73.46% of the CPPs correctly as to intent to return to the same type of preinjury job. Conclusions: There appears to be a relationship between preinjury job perceptions and intent to return to the same type of job post pain treatment. However, subgroups of CPPs will differ by which job perceptions are important towards making that decision.