Effectiveness of a Multimodal Treatment Program for Somatoform Pain Disorder

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 8 years, 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.

Potential effects of multimodal psychosomatic inpatient treatment for patients with functional vertigo and dizziness symptoms – A pilot trial

“…Similar to our findings, Tschan et al as well observed a very small reduction in vertigo symptom severity measured with the VSS. Compared to effects observed in previous evaluations of psychosomatic inpatient treatment programmes for patients with various disorders (Wunner, Reichhart, Strauss, & Sollner, 2014) and somatoform pain (Pieh et al, 2014) who found medium to large effects for depression, our observed effects in reducing depression are smaller. Regarding somatization, our effects are similar to those found by Wunner et al (2014).…”

Group supervision for healthcare professionals within primary care for patients with psychosomatic health problems: a pilot intervention study

“…The study is in line with the research that maintains that the inability of the healthcare professionals to help the patient understand the nature of their health problems was the main reason for not being able to give them adequate treatment (17,34). In this study, the patients' inability to reflect on their life situation was either remedied during the initial sessions in the psycho-educative category of participants through pedagogical (cognitive) methods, for those patients who could readily accept the psychosomatic explanation, or as in the other category of participants, accepted as a part of these patients' particular pathology.…”

Long-Term Outcomes of a Multimodal Day-Clinic Treatment for Chronic Pain under the Conditions of Routine Care

“…When interpreting these benchmark comparisons, it is important to consider the following aspects as possible reasons for discrepant results. Different treatment durations (4 weeks in the present study and, e.g., in [ 26 ] versus 5 weeks in [ 24 , 25 ]), different treatment settings (e.g., day-clinic treatment in the present study and, e.g., in [ 24 , 25 ] versus inpatient treatment in [ 17 ]), and different dropout rates (e.g., 80% [ 27 ] or 59% [ 17 ] dropout at 1-year follow-up versus <50% dropout at 1-year follow-up in the present study).…”