Abstract
Chronic pain is a highly prevalent condition worldwide, affecting approximately 10–30% of the population.(1–4) Effective management of chronic pain remains a major challenge for clinicians. Pharmacological therapy continues to be the cornerstone of chronic pain management in Vietnam and globally. However, the continued pursuit of pain relief through pharmacological treatment alone has raised concerns regarding its long-term effectiveness and safety. In fact, there is limited population-level evidence demonstrating sustained improvements in patient outcomes or reductions in disability over the long term.(5) Once pain is considered chronic, complete resolution based on the traditional biomedical model is often unrealistic. Instead, patients should be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve long-term self-management of pain at an acceptable level.(6) In response to this need, recent years have witnessed increasing efforts to develop long-term strategies aimed at improving outcomes for patients with chronic pain. Among these, patient self-management strategies incorporating psychological interventions have been developed and rapidly adopted in many countries worldwide. Evidence supporting the long-term effectiveness of these approaches continues to accumulate. This review summarizes the key characteristics and conceptual foundations of self-management strategies for chronic pain, examines the current evidence regarding their effectiveness, and introduces a self-management program that has been implemented in several countries.
