Background. Back pain is the most common form of pain and leads to high costs in all medical care systems. Objective. The present study examines the prevalence of back pain and its associations with some basic demographics. Methods. Two samples from Poland and Germany (about n = 500 each) were examined via Internet regarding back pain, gender, age, and body mass index (BMI). Results. Back pain is more common in women than in men (risk ratio about 1.7), and a high BMI constitutes an additional risk factor. Age was not related to back pain prevalence. Conclusion. Congruent results in two countries based on the same measure of back pain lead to the assumption that much of the variety found in estimates of back pain are due to inconsistent assessment. For future research, a definition of common criteria on how to assess back pain would be an asset.

ObjectiveVarious childhood adversities have been found to be associated with chronic pain in adulthood. However, associations were moderate in most studies, i.e. odds ratios (OR) were between one and two.MethodAn internet survey was performed in 508 Polish and 500 German subjects. A total of 19 childhood adversities were selected and their associations with headaches explored. Age, gender and country were included as potential confounders, as well as their two-way interaction with the risk factors.ResultsTwo strong risk factors were identified. (1) A combined score for physical and emotional neglect showed an odds ratio (OR) of 2.78 (p < .002) to the frequency of headache in adulthood as a main effect. (2) Father having had chronic pain showed an OR of 4.36 (p < .001) with headache in adulthood for women, but not for men (OR = 0.86, p < .556). The majority of the examined childhood adversities were not associated with adult headache, neither when tested individually nor as a sum score.ConclusionThis study confirms results from previous ones that childhood adversities may play a role in the development of adult headache, but it is a rather minor one. Contrary to other studies, neglect turned out to be one of the strongest predictors.

ZusammenfassungChronische Schmerzen, darunter v. a. Rückenschmerz als häufigste Lokalisation, zählen zu den bedeutsamsten medizinischen Leiden weltweit. Die Kosten für das Gesundheitssystem sind dabei erheblich. Zugleich sind die derzeit noch häufig angewendeten Therapieansätze, die oftmals aus einer alleinigen symptomatischen Behandlung bestehen, wenig erfolgversprechend. In 80–85% der Fälle lassen sich keine morphologischen Anhaltspunkte für eine mögliche Ätiologie finden, sodass in diesem Fall von „nicht-spezifischen“ Rückenschmerzen gesprochen wird. Insgesamt betrachtet lässt sich die Genese chronischer Rückenschmerzen am besten durch einen multifaktoriellen Entstehungsmechanismus erklären, in den eine Kombination aus biopsychosozialen, biographischen, neurobiologischen, genetischen und kognitiven Faktoren mit einbezogen wird. Aus diesem Grund zeigt eine multimodal ausgerichtete Therapie die beste Wirksamkeit, weil sie die verschiedenen Aspekte der Schmerzentstehung berücksichtigen kann.

The symptom checklist-27-plus has demonstrated good psychometric properties in various samples, but clinical data have not yet been published. Data from 690 mostly young female patients with eating disorders show reliabilities ranging from acceptable to very good (Cronbachs α between 0.76 und 0.89). Data from intake and discharge show a good ability to measure change (Cohen's d between 0.27 und 1.31). At intake, patients display a very high symptom load, which has decreased significantly at discharge.