The Survey of Implementing the ICD-11 Chronic Pain Classification in Multidisciplinary Pain Centers of Japan

Since multidisciplinary treatment for chronic pain has been backward in Japan compared with other developed countries for long time, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) encouraged an expert panel to build multidisciplinary pain centers in Japan so that patients with chronic pain can improve pain and functions through multifaceted, comprehensive approaches. As a result, 33 multidisciplinary pain centers have been established in the past decade. MHLW also requested the panel to investigate the effectiveness of the treatment in these centers, so an ideal chronic pain classification is needed to find out what treatment is effective for what kind of chronic pain. Simultaneously, World Health Organization and the IASP have prepared to introduce the ICD-11 chronic pain classification. Therefore, MHLW asked the expert panel to organize a research party of the 33 multidisciplinary pain centers in order to examine characteristics of patients and the effectiveness of the treatment based on the ICD-11 chronic pain classification. The presentation will demonstrate the experience, struggles and problems of adopting the ICD-11 chronic pain classification and the results of the treatment of the pain centers.