[3-year catamneses of psychosomatically treated chronic headache syndromes]

Follow-up examination was carried out on 25 patients having suffered from severest head-ache syndromes for an average of 21.8 years. Three years after a six-week in-patient psychosomatic treatment these patients showed stable rates of improvement with regard to frequency and intensity of persistent head-ache, frequency and intensity of paroxysmal head-ache, use of analgetics, and neurotic complaints like phobic anxiety, depressive symptoms, and inhibition of aggression. These findings established the effectiveness of the therapeutic concept which we had developed in this context. This concept does not concern attempts at intervening in the pathogenetic backgrounds of isolated attacks of pain. The approach starts out with the psychosomatic conditions for the disposition to suffer pain.