[Inpatient psychotherapy with chronic psychogenic pain patients]

The efficacy of inpatient psychosomatic psychotherapy was proved by a naturalistic prospective study with 50 psychogenic pain patients over an average time period of 12 weeks. At the end of inpatient psychotherapy about 60% of all patients achieved pain mitigation. According to the aim of our therapeutic concept to specially improve the perception and verbalization of their own conflicts or affects about 86% of all patients judged to have an enhanced competence in problem solving. The hypothesis that depression may often occur as a consequence of several years lasting chronic pain, could not be confirmed in our study. In contrast no remarkable correlation was found between symptom duration and depressive or anxious mood respectively. Concerning prognosis it seems to be significant that an increased tendency for rationalization or intellectualization diminished clinical outcome success as well as it occurred with enhanced acute pain sensation.