[When nothing helps anymore outside: interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy]

Nearly 10% of the German population suffers from debilitating chronic pain with psychosocial factors and significant consequences for their quality of life. These individuals require early interdisciplinary assessment and treatment when there are corresponding indications. Neurophysiologically detectable sensitization processes explain the clinical experiences and studies that timely referral of patients with unclear, persistent symptoms to an early interdisciplinary multimodal assessment (IMA) and, if necessary, to interdisciplinary multimodal therapy (IMST) can prevent the development or progression of pain chronification. The chronification of pain is not a problem of time but of the increase in the somatic and psychosocial factors involved. Therefore, recognizing and clarifying these chronification factors in a timely manner is more crucial than adhering to temporal definitions for chronic pain, which often leads to late interdisciplinary assessment and treatment.