OBJECTIVE: To investigate the feasibility of a randomised controlled trial in a usual clinical setting and the effect of work rehabilitation on improvement to the ability to work in chronic pain patients. DESIGN: 33 patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain, valid job contracts and absence from work, random allocation. The interdisciplinary work rehabilitation contained work-specific exercises and education and lasted 8 weeks, 3.5 hours each working day. The control treatment took place with the allocating physician, who received recommendations concerning physical therapy and the uptake of work. Assessments took place at 0, 8 and 32 weeks. Measurements: ability to work, actual work status in % of a full time job, functional capacity tasks measured in kilograms. RESULTS: Feasibility: the recruitment was of a long duration due to the rather restrictive inclusion criteria. Actual work status: the improvement between the groups was not significantly different, but the ability to work improved significantly from an overall median of 0% to 50% at 8 weeks (p = 0.004 for the intervention group, p = 0.026 for the control group). CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation of a running work rehabilitation programme in a clinical outpatient setting in clinical science is feasible, but a more effective recruitment strategy for a main study is favoured by application of a multi-centric or company based setting.

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