Director: Michael R. Clark, M.D., M.P.H.
The Pain Treatment Program (PTP) in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences offers comprehensive evaluation, treatment planning, and care for patients with chronic, disabling pain that requires intensive rehabilitation. Our interdisciplinary team, led by a psychiatrist, and consisting of nurses, social workers, nurse practitioners, physical therapists and other specialists, develops an individual treatment plan for each patient. Consultations are requested as needed from anesthesiology, internal medicine, neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, and physical medicine in order to address what is often a complex interaction of medical, neurological, and psychiatric issues. Surgical, interventional, pharmacological, physical, and psychological therapies are all potentially available to our patients with the goal of restoring health, function, and quality of life.
OUR PATIENTS
In the context of teaching and research, the PTP has treated many types of chronic pain, regardless of its source or co-occurring medical conditions. Some patients in this program have exhausted all surgical treatment and need to concentrate on reconditioning, regaining lost function, and learning to cope with a chronic condition. Others are experiencing pain or other physical symptoms such as fatigue or dizziness with unknown origins and for which standard treatments have failed to provide relief. Still other patients are suffering from substance use disorders that have grown out of their search for pain relief, or are experiencing the physical pain that can accompany depression or other psychiatric illnesses.
OUR APPROACH
Patients with chronic pain often become disabled in the pursuit of comfort. Our philosophy of pain treatment is based on the belief that patients suffer when their functioning and quality of life are impaired. Our goal is to increase the functional ability of each patient to the highest possible level. Our approach recognizes the fundamental differences in the individual pathways patients take to their unique disabilities. The program’s comprehensive approach organizes care with an individualized formulation that targets diseases, personal vulnerabilities, disabled behaviors, and meaningful life events. Treatment plans are designed to fix the pathology of diseases, enhance personal abilities, teach healthy behaviors, and instill a sense of hope for a successful future.
The PTP has grown into a continuum of care that includes an inpatient unit, a partial hospitalization program (Day Hospital), and an outpatient consultation clinic. On these pages you can learn more about each of these services as well as meet the treatment team, have common questions answered (FAQs), find important publications and weblinks resources, and learn about the admissions process as well as important billing and insurance information.
CONTACT INFORMATION
For more information click here to download PDF file of Program Information Handout
Pain Treatment Program
Johns Hopkins Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science
600 North Wolfe Steet, Meyer 143
Baltimore, Maryland 21287Phone: 410-955-8069
Fax: 410-955-6155
E-mail: paintreatmentprogram@jhmi.edu
