Pain is a human's unseen enemy. It is the one symptom which can destroy your life without having any outward, visible signs. If you bleed, have a broken bone or a seizure, your problem is seen and responded to quickly. Unfortunately when it comes to pain, not everyone takes it seriously, as they cannot see it. Yet this invisible beast can take control of all aspects of your life if not treated appropriately.
Once the pain has stayed long enough to be called chronic, three to six months, it starts to affect many angles of our existence. Lack of energy, irritability, depression, lack of sleep, decreased sexual desire, decline in functional ability, professional and economical loss, family problems, lack of leisure and recreational activities are among a long list of problems, which happen very commonly with chronic pain.
With this understanding in mind, it would be very difficult to treat such a complicated and multi-faceted problem with only one approach, and from one angle. Using a medication, doing some physical therapy, seeing a psychologist here and there, is not the best answer to this enemy, which is attacking from all angles at once. Combining all modalities which are related to different problems caused by pain, is the best way of treating chronic pain.
This is called Multi-disciplinary pain management.