Primary care for patients suffering from chronic pain is regularly provided by either family physicians or inpatient medical wards. A delay in initiating specific pain treatment is associated with poor outcome in terms of pain intensity, work disability and diminished quality of life. We present a diagnostic classification scheme for chronic pain disorders following the biopsychosocial disease model. This classification may help primary care providers initiate appropriate treatment early in the course of chronic pain, and aid in referral of their patients to services familiar with the treatment of chronic pain. Given increasing requests for quality control in health care and for transparency in disease management by health insurance companies, we propose a coding system of chronic non-malignant pain syndromes with the ICD-10.