The clinical course of musculoskeletal pain in empirically derived groupings of injured workers

The purpose of this paper is to examine the clinical course of musculoskeletal, soft tissue, work-related injury. An analysis of empirically derived sub-groupings of workers based on prognostically important pain and disability variables assessed on enrollment into the study is described. Multidimensional time-dependent profiles are used to characterize stages in the development of pain, impairment, disability and handicap. The clinical course …