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Michael I. Weintraub, MD
New York Medical College Briarcliff Manor

JAMA. 1993;269(3):355-356.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—Deyo et al¹ minimized the most critical question: "Are these symptoms of low back pain related to litigation?" This is of fundamental importance since this segment of the population accounts for a disproportionate amount of cost, greater than 80%.² Despite the fact that chronic pain is the leading cause of disability in the United States, it has never been considered as a disease entity because of its many causes. However, it becomes apparent that this is a distinct symptom complex when ligitation is lurking in the background. In a prior study,³ the contemporary profile of typical chronic pain sufferers is of patients who were disabled out of proportion to their initial injury or physical findings, over-investigated, moody, manipulative, litigious, and therapeutically unresponsive. A recent study of a cohort of 210 patients with chronic pain syndrome in litigation (worker's compensation cases excluded) was tabulated in . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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