Regaining balance after "reality vertigo:" teaching learners to attend to the psychological aspects of patients with chronic, nonmalignant pain.

(Fam Med 2006;38(2):86-9.) Editor’s Note: Caring for patients with chronic pain can be difficult for learners and even the most experienced physicians. In this month’s column, Heidi Pomm, PhD, of the St Vincent’s Medical Center Family Medicine Residency in Jacksonville, Fla, explains important diagnostic and management issues that the office-based teacher should discuss with learners caring for patients with chronic pain. Dr Pomm has written an article of similar content that was published in the Summer 2005 edition of Northeast Florida Medicine, the journal of the Duval, Clay, Nassau, St. John’s, and Putnam Medical Societies in Florida. This month’s column is published with the written permission of the Duval Medical Society, the copyright holder of Northeast Florida Medicine. I welcome your comments about this feature, which is also published on the STFM Web site at www. stfm.org. I also encourage all predoctoral directors to make copies of this feature and distribute it to their preceptors (with the appropriate Family Medicine citation). Send your submissions to williamh@bcm. tmc.edu. William Huang, MD, Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine, 3701 Kirby, Suite 600, Houston, TX 77098-3915. 713-798-6271. Fax: 713-798-7789. Submissions should be no longer than 3–4 double-spaced pages. References can be used but are not required. Count each table or figure as one page of text.