Gender effects on outcomes of psychosomatic rehabilitation are reduced

Abstract

Objective The study examined whether psychiatric/psychosomatic rehabilitation continues to have a better course of treatment for women than men. Methods We compared the course of global symptom severity, health-related quality of life and functioning between admission and discharge in patients (848 men, 1412 women) at an Austrian psychiatric/psychosomatic rehabilitation clinic. Results Gender-specific differences in the course of treatment were all too small to be clinically relevant. The differences were smallest in the middle-aged cohort. However, at the time of admission, women reported a slightly higher symptom burden. Conclusion Overall, the results show a gender-fair effectiveness of the rehabilitation. The new findings could be explained by changes in living conditions, gender roles, or better treatment methods.

Epistemic Trust Is a Critical Success Factor in Psychosomatic Rehabilitation—Results from a Naturalistic Multi-Center Observational Study

“…Following the holistic approach of psychosomatic medicine, psychosomatic rehabilitation integrates a biopsychosocial understanding and multi-factorial etiology of illnesses, whereby biological, psychological, and social factors interact to cause and maintain mental and physical symptoms and impaired functioning. To account for this, psychosomatic rehabilitation provides an interdisciplinary treatment approach with the aim of reducing pathology as well as increasing functioning and quality of life [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. In Austria, psychosomatic rehabilitation is normally regulated by the performance profile of the responsible pension scheme (PVA) and generally provides a 6-week (42-day) inpatient rehabilitation treatment consisting of individual and group psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, medical examinations, physical training, occupational therapy, nutrition counseling, creative therapies, and social counseling [ 1 , 5 ].…”