Group physical therapy improves outcomes for patients on an inpatient psychiatric pain service.

Background: While physical therapists have provided group physical therapy interventions for patients admitted to inpatient psychiatric pain service lines, to date, it has not been assessed whether the patients' outcomes of pain and function have improved during their stay. Thus, our aim is to evaluate how group physical therapy, as part of an inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation team, impacts outcomes for patients receiving chronic pain treatment services.

Methods: Data was retrospectively retrieved from patients who received group physical therapy during their inpatient psychiatric pain admission. At evaluation and discharge, PROMIS Pain Interference Scale tracked pain, while AM-PAC Basic Mobility Outpatient Short Form measured functional mobility. Paired samples statistics were used to evaluate outcomes.

Results: Over a 6-month period, 25 patients (average age 40.28 +/- 15.93 years) received group physical therapy. All patients had the treatment diagnosis of chronic pain. The null hypothesis, that there was no difference between evaluation and discharge scores, was rejected for both the PROMIS Pain Interference Scale t (25) = 3.82, two-tailed p < .001 and the AM-PAC Mobility Score t (25) = -2.24, two-tailed p = .03.

Conclusions: Group physical therapy, as part of an inpatient psychiatric pain management team, assists with improving patient outcomes of pain and mobility.