Goal setting as a predictor of return to work in a population of chronic musculoskeletal pain patients.

To assess prospectively the association between personal attributes, vocational factors, and the return to work outcome for patients with chronic, nonmalignant, musculoskeletal pain, we assessed return to work (RTW) motivation though an open-format listing of treatment goals in 59 chronic pain patients admitted to a university pain management program. Patients were then followed (average of 17.9 months) in the posttreatment period to determine whether they had in fact returned to employment. Results indicated that a number of pretreatment factors predicted future employment status in this patient population. Age, marital status, education and decreased length of unemployment were predictive of RTW outcome. Overall, RTW goal was the single best predictor of return to work outcome. In contrast, increased number of premorbid jobs, compensation status, patient's race and sex were not predictive. The present study suggests that the assessment of an individual's motivation as defined by goal-setting may be a key factor in predicting a favorable outcome in this typically refractory population of patients.