Physical medicine and rehabilitation, also called physiatry (in America), is a specialty of medicine that establishes as a priority the achievement of the objectives of functionality and social reintegration of a patient with a disability. It uses the pharmacological, physical means (natural or modified non-ionizing), the occupational ones and the technical aids that include ortho-prostheses for external use. In short, it includes the study, diagnosis, prevention, and clinical treatment of patients with disabling processes. In other words, the rehabilitation specialty is the one that deals with the disability regardless of the area of ​​the body that it affects.

It is the condition under which certain people have some physical, intellectual, or sensory deficiency that affect the way they interact and fully participate in society. Disability is often associated with being in a wheelchair, but there are situations that can be temporary and limit the person from fully participating in society. A common disabling process is both acute and chronic pain.

The International Association for the Study of Pain defined pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience, associated with actual or potential tissue damage." Pain perception consists of a sensory neuronal system (nocioceptors) and afferent nerve pathways that respond to tissue nociceptive stimulation; nociception may be influenced by other factors (e.g. psychological).

To treat pain, the cause must first be found. Hence the importance of a doctor who makes a diagnosis and can confirm it through complementary tests. A correct diagnosis allows to be able to treat the pain in an effective way and sometimes in a definitive way.

As mentioned in defining the Rehabilitation Specialty, the rehabilitating physician is sensitized regarding disability because is the physician who treats and helps reduce disability. As pain itself is a really disabling symptom, it explains why doctors are the ones who make up the pain units together with anaesthetists.

Pain units are multidisciplinary hospital services dedicated to the treatment of pain. They mainly treat chronic pain that already have a diagnosis and try to alleviate the symptoms with a comprehensive vision.

No, the objective of this consultation is to carry out the first approach to pain from a rehabilitative perspective that allows rethinking possible previous diagnoses to find the true cause and treat it effectively. It is an ambulatory (out-of-hospital) consultation, but with the advantage of having a doctor experienced in multidisciplinary work and that this will allow him to better guide the patient on the possible paths that he should take.