Abstract
Assessing impairment and/or disability in the pain patient often is difficult due to both administrative and clinical issues; in addition, the terms impairment and disability are misunderstood. Chronic pain complaints may be associated with significant disability, but typically the physician defines clinical issues, functional deficits, and, when requested, impairment; disability most often is an administrative determination. The biopsychosocial approach currently is viewed as most appropriate perspective for understanding, assessing, and treating chronic pain disorders and acknowledges a complex and dynamic interaction among biological, psychological, and social factors. The AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides), Sixth Edition, discusses the assessment of pain and eligibility requirements for pain-related impairment (PRI). Some physicians feel that the AMA Guides’ approach to PRI does not adequately address the “disability” and functional loss caused by some chronic pain states, but the AMA Guides is limited, mostly, to describing measurable objective changes or impairment. The AMA Guides is not intended to be used for direct estimates of loss of work capacity (disability), and impairment percentages derived according to the AMA Guides criteria do not measure work disability. Impairment ratings in the AMA Guides already have accounted for impairment-associated pain, including that experienced in areas distant to the specific site of pathology.
