Chronic pain patients can be classified into four groups: Clustering-based discriminant analysis of psychometric data from 4665 patients referred to a multidisciplinary pain centre (a SQRP study).

The identification of these four clusters of chronic pain patients could be useful for the development of personalized rehabilitation programs. For example, the identification of a subgroup characterized mainly by high perceived "social distress" raises the question of how to best design interventions for such patients. Differentiating between clinically important subgroups and comparing how these subgroups respond to interventions is arguably an important area for further research.