I attend a scs class at my pain doc's office, cuz he suggested that for me. However, it's not really right for my lifestyle, so I couldn't go thru with it. During that class, however, they explained what the psych evaluation was for. It's not really to see how you would react "pain free" - but basically to see if you are ready for the scs MENTALLY. They evaluate for three things:

1). Anxiety
2). Depression
3). How you convert anxiety into pain

As you know, many people feel worse when they feel bad mentally. Therefore, they want to make sure there are no signs of depression evident, so that your husband is going to be able to give a good and fair representation of the pain relief he gets from the trial, without interjecting his feelings of anxiety and depression into his opinion of the scs's pain relieving ability.

IOW, they want to know that mentally, he's able to discern the difference between the pain his body feels from his RSD, and the pain his body feels from stress, anxiety and depression, and that he doesn't convert his anxiety/stress into pain. Cuz if he DOES, he won't be able to tell the doctors whether or not the scs is working.

They also want to make sure that when your dh says "my pain is a 9 today" that it's REALLY a 9 for the PAIN, and not a 6 for hte pain, but the additional 3 is coming from his "mind" - that his anxiety or depression is converting those negative moods into pain, making him "think" he's at a 9 on the pain chart. Basically that some of the pain isn't 'in his head' if you KWIM

You are also going to see that some people are going to be against the scs. When I posted about going to the class, there was a huge outpouring of "don't do it" posts (but that was on the old board). What I'm going to say is, do your own research, and make your own decision, because the scs has been a lifesaving device for many people. There are some people that it has worked tremendously for. There are others it has not worked for at all. There are some for which the trial worked great, but once the permanent one was implanted, it didn't work at all. There are some who had bad side effects and got worse.

What works for one person, may not work for another, so do not let the negative things frighten you away. For every bad news report you hear, there is a good news report to be found, so do your own research. Make your own decision.

There are a LOT of restrictions after the implant, and if you follow the restrictions TO THE LETTER, there is a much better chance of the scs working. In the class I attended, I brought up the negative things I heard, and they stated the largest rate of failure was to those who did not adhere to the restrictions (such as no overhead movement, which is the hardest one to follow). Yet, many patients blamed it on the failure of the scs. That is a pertinent factor, or so I heard in the class. Those limitations he has after the implant, if not followed to the letter, will make the leads move and his pain relief will not be ultimate.

And...they don't always expect 100% pain relief. They said in the class that they shoot for 50%. That's also what I read. If your husband is shooting for 100% he will be disappointed. Very few people with the scs go totally off their pain meds, and do still need breakthru meds.

Good luck sweetie.