• P Keel.
• Psychiatrische Universitätspoliklinik, Basel.
• Ther Umsch. 1992 Sep 1; 49 (9): 616-22.

AbstractPhysically working people are more likely to suffer from backache. Not only is their work hard and menial but usually also degrading. Unpleasant circumstances such as an offensive environment, the monotony of work, poor qualifications or unsatisfactory work generally influence the persistence of pain. The course of an illness such as a lingering backache, is hardly ever determined by somatic factors. A prognosis is rather based upon the attitude and behaviour of the single patient and his social surroundings, as well as upon the pathological process. Medication might even worsen rather than improve the patient's condition. The typical foreign worker, who generally merely has an elementary education and whom we therefore assign unqualified work, does not only risk to suffer from backache. His personal strength and his circumstances can seriously hinder his rehabilitation, more than it would be the case with native patients. The accumulation of negative factors is closely connected to his role of a foreign worker, whereas cultural aspects do not seem to be determining. Therefore, the foreign patient's rehabilitation can be fostered and improved by adopting the same methods used with Swiss patients against the chronicisation of backache. Nevertheless, the mentioned unfavourable factors and additional language problems considerably foil all efforts to a successful rehabilitation.

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