Zusammenfassung
Psychotherapie bei chronischen Schmerzen? Was auf den ersten Blick unpassend erscheint,
entpuppt sich als hilfreiche und wirksame Intervention für Störungsbilder, bei denen
rein somatisch orientierte Behandlungsversuche scheitern. Eingebettet in die interdisziplinäre
multimodale Schmerztherapie stellt die Schmerzpsychotherapie heutzutage einen essenziellen
Bestandteil der Behandlung chronischer Schmerzen dar.
Abstract
Interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy (IMPT) is based on the biopsychosocial model
of pain and describes an integrated treatment for patients with chronic pain. IMPT
incorporates a close cooperation of different disciplines, including physicians, psychotherapists,
physiotherapists, and others. IMPT mainly aims to restore and increase patientsʼ physical,
social and psychological functional capacity. The efficacy of IMPT has been evidenced
by systematic reviews and meta-analyses. A number of studies further indicate IMPTʼs
cost-efficiency. Psychotherapy is an essential component of IMPT. Its main goal within
the framework of IMPT is to identify and modify dysfunctional patterns of pain coping,
and to diagnose and potentially treat psychological comorbidities. Pain psychotherapy
comprises mostly cognitive-behavioral interventions which address dysfunctional coping
at the three levels of the pain experience (i.e., cognitive, emotional, and behavioral).
Research into the
efficacy of pain psychotherapy is rather sparse and studies have mostly focused
on chronic back pain, yet existing results show promising evidence both for psychotherapy
within IMPT and for psychotherapy as a monotherapy. This paper aims at providing an
overview of (a) commonly employed cognitive-behavioral psychotherapeutic approaches
and strategies in the treatment of chronic pain, and (b) the existing empirical evidence
of pain psychotherapy both within the framework of IMPT and as a monotherapy. Future
research should include a wider range of pain diagnoses and also investigate the potential
benefit of individually-tailored treatments.
Schlüsselwörter
Interdisziplinäre multimodale Schmerztherapie (IMST) - chronischer Schmerz - Schmerzpsychotherapie
- Wirksamkeit
Key words
Interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy - chronic pain - psychological pain therapy
- efficacy
