[Some treatment effects of inpatient psychosomatic therapy]

In an earlier study the authors found that patients of the psychosomatic ward of the Vienna Allgemeine Krankenhaus showed a high frequency of consultation with physicians for the time period prior to their admission to the ward. The present study asked--in comparison with untreated cases--whether a) this consultation frequency would be different in quantity and quality according to the experience of in-patient treatment and b) what the effect of in-patient treatment would have on medication consumption and a set of subjective parameters. This study comparing 37 psychosomatic patients with the control group of 18 individuals showed that psychosomatic in-patient treatment had a decisive influence on consultation frequencies and behaviour, on medication habits and on some subjective parameters. Individuals with in-patient treatment had a consultation frequency over 50% lower than diagnostically comparable cases without psychosomatic treatment. In their own estimation, patients were able to cope with their symptoms (insofar as these remained) significantly better than those without such treatment, and the majority expressed satisfaction with their stay in the psychosomatic ward even 5 years later. Their medication consumption rate showed a declining pattern und their positive responses to a number of personal and medical parameters had the same wide scope as the persons of the control group, while those patients who did not receive this specific treatment clearly manifested a more restricted pattern.