Articles: chronic-pain.
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Chronic pain is a complex experience that may change the life of the patient totally. Being influenced by numerous factors, communication between the physician and the patient on such a complex experience is not always easy. ⋯ Our results showed that the new method is appropriate to evaluate the intensity of pain in patients with chronic pain, but no to explore the patient's psychological state. The patients' assessment showed clearly that they preferred the dolorimeter to evaluate their pain intensity while they preferred a verbal scale (Profile of Mood States) to describe their mood state.
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This epidemiological questionnaire-study of 362 patients suffering from chronic pain related to musculoskeletal disorders showed the following results: Most musculoskeletal pain syndromes are located in the head and back areas (57.3%). Patients who seek treatment in an orthopedic pain clinic suffer from at least moderate pain according to the verbal rating scale and from pain equal too or more than 50 on to the numeric rating scale. For most patients (51.9%) the duration of the pain has been between 1 and 10 years. ⋯ Most patients with chronic pain consult 2 to 6 doctors. For typical orthopedic pain syndromes most patients consult an orthopedist. Patients with chronic headaches consult an orthopedic specialist about as frequently as neurologist or internist specialist.
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Tursky's pain perception profile [16] has been revised and adapted for use in German-speaking conditions, and this new modification is presented. It integrates six different methods of clinical and experimental methods of clinical and experimental pain measurement, which are intended to meet the enhanced demands put forward in pain research for multivariate measurement of pain by a variety of methods. ⋯ The results document the many aspects of chronic pain and the necessity for multimodal measurement. In addition, they supply a means of achieving a better pain-related classification of pain patients on an experimental basis.
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An outpatient treatment programme for pain control was applied in 25 chronic pain patients in three general medical practices, supervised by a medical psychologist as a group therapist. The patients has been suffering from headaches, migraines, cervical pain, shoulder and arm pain, and low back pain for at least 6 months. A sample of 20 patients with the same disorders served as a control group which waiting for treatment. ⋯ Nonetheless, all the subjects treated showed improvements in their average scores for trait anxiety, depression and symptoms complaints compared with the untreated controls. Our results indicate a long-term improvement in well-being as a result of the treatment. Treatment adherence seems to be the most important factor in the maintenance of long-term reduction of pain intensity.
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The gate control theory resulted in intensified consideration and investigation of psychological factors in the pathogenesis and continuation of chronic pain. This had led to an increasing interest in the efficacy of psychotherapy for such patients. The different forms of psychotherapy (hypnosis, relaxation, behavior therapy, psychodynamically oriented therapy) currently most often applied are reviewed with notes on the methods and the efficacy recorded for each. ⋯ The small numbers of patients evaluated in most of the studies suggest that the population investigated may well not be representative, especially if the difficulty of motivating chronic pain patients to present for psychotherapy is taken into account. In addition, a diagnostic classification of the population investigated is lacking. Conclusions are drawn for the planning of future therapy studies.