• Christoph Pieh, Susanne Neumeier, Thomas Loew, Jürgen Altmeppen, Michael Angerer, Volker Busch, and Claas Lahmann.
• Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Centre Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany; Department for Psychotherapy and Biopsychosocial Health, Danube University Krems, Krems, Austria.
• Pain Pract. 2014 Mar 1;14(3):E146-51.

AbstractChronic pain conditions are highly prevalent, with somatoform pain disorder accounting for a large proportion. However, the psychological forms of treatment currently used achieve only small to medium effect sizes. This retrospective study investigated the effectiveness of a 5-week multimodal pain program for patients with somatoform pain disorder. The diagnosis of somatoform pain disorder was confirmed by a specialist for anesthesiology and pain management and a specialist for psychosomatic medicine. Therapy outcome was evaluated with a Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), the Pain Disability Index (PDI), and the Pain Perception Scale. Within the study sample (n = 100), all parameters showed a significant and clinically relevant improvement at the end of therapy (P values < 0.001). The highest effect sizes (d) were found for reduction in average pain rating (NRS: d = 1.00) and the affective items of the Pain Perception Scale (SES-A: d = 0.07). The lowest effect sizes were found for improvement of pain-related disabilities (PDI: d = 0.42) and sensory items of the Pain Perception Scale (SES-S: d = 0.50). Despite high chronification of pain condition, with average pain duration of greater than 8 years, the multimodal treatment program showed medium to large effect sizes on the outcome of patients with somatoform pain disorder. Compared with previous data with small to moderate effect sizes, a multimodal program seems to be more effective than other interventions to address somatoform pain disorder.© 2013 World Institute of Pain.

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