Abstract
Chronic pain conditions are highly prevalent, with somatoform pain disorder accounting for a large proportion. However, the psychological forms of treatment currently used achieve only small to medium effect sizes. This retrospective study investigated the effectiveness of a 5-week multimodal pain program for patients with somatoform pain disorder. The diagnosis of somatoform pain disorder was ...
Abstract
Chronic pain conditions are highly prevalent, with somatoform pain disorder accounting for a large proportion. However, the psychological forms of treatment currently used achieve only small to medium effect sizes. This retrospective study investigated the effectiveness of a 5-week multimodal pain program for patients with somatoform pain disorder. The diagnosis of somatoform pain disorder was confirmed by a specialist for anesthesiology and pain management and a specialist for psychosomatic medicine. Therapy outcome was evaluated with a Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), the Pain Disability Index (PDI), and the Pain Perception Scale. Within the study sample (n=100), all parameters showed a significant and clinically relevant improvement at the end of therapy (P values <0.001). The highest effect sizes (d) were found for reduction in average pain rating (NRS: d=1.00) and the affective items of the Pain Perception Scale (SES-A: d=0.07). The lowest effect sizes were found for improvement of pain-related disabilities (PDI: d=0.42) and sensory items of the Pain Perception Scale (SES-S: d=0.50). Despite high chronification of pain condition, with average pain duration of greater than 8years, the multimodal treatment program showed medium to large effect sizes on the outcome of patients with somatoform pain disorder. Compared with previous data with small to moderate effect sizes, a multimodal program seems to be more effective than other interventions to address somatoform pain disorder.
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