Premium
Effectiveness of a Multimodal Treatment Program for Somatoform Pain Disorder
Author(s) -
Pieh Christoph,
Neumeier Susanne,
Loew Thomas,
Altmeppen Jürgen,
Angerer Michael,
Busch Volker,
Lahmann Claas
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
pain practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1533-2500
pISSN - 1530-7085
DOI - 10.1111/papr.12144
Subject(s) - medicine , multimodal therapy , rating scale , psychological intervention , physical therapy , pain perception , pain management , chronic pain , psychiatry , psychology , developmental psychology
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.