Der Orthopäde
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Low back pain is still a big medical and social problem. During the last few decades a change of paradigm in treating non-specific low back pain has happened: physical activity and exercise therapy are now recommended as the first-line treatment in all relevant national and international guidelines. In chronic cases only biopsychosocial treatment concepts are successful, which have been introduced in Germany in 1990 in the form of the GRIP (Göttingen intensive low back program) for the first time. Meanwhile, this treatment has now been recommended by all evidence-based guidelines but we are still in the beginning of a full coverage care in Germany.
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The efficacy of intensive interdisciplinary pain management programs for patients with chronic low back pain has been repeatedly demonstrated. A controversial issue in previous studies is the cost-effectiveness of this treatment. Between 2001 and 2006, a total of 575 patients with chronic nonspecific back pain took part in an outpatient pain management program at the German Red Cross Pain Center (DRK Schmerz-Zentrum Mainz) in Mainz, Germany. ⋯ For employed patients, the number of absent days decreased to almost one-quarter. On the basis of the study by Wenig, who calculated pain-related costs as a function of Von Korff pain grades, the treatment resulted in a savings of euro 3,329.50 per year per patient. Intensive multidisciplinary treatment of chronic back pain is highly effective and, at least for patients with high levels of disability, is also cost-effective.