[Desire for early retirement and therapy of chronic back pain: relevance of social medical variables for outpatient psychotherapeutic treatment].
BACKGROUND
This study investigated the influence of patients' desire for early retirement on the success of an outpatient cognitive behavioural treatment (CBT) in patients with chronic back pain. Previous studies have shown that the desire for early retirement and social compensation had a negative influence on therapy outcome, e.g. pain intensity and pain disability. This study was conducted to reassess whether these results can be replicated in an outpatient CBT setting.


METHODS
Questionnaires assessing pain-related variables were issued to a total of 116 patients at the beginning, at the end of treatment and 6 months after termination of therapy.


RESULTS
Overall, the treatment showed significant positive results in the variables assessed. In contrast to other studies, patients with a desire for early retirement also showed improvement during treatment. The success of treatment proved to be stable after termination of therapy.


CONCLUSIONS
CBT in an outpatient setting seems to be an effective treatment for patients with chronic back pain and even patients with a desire for early retirement benefit from treatment.
Trapp
K
K
FB Psychologie - AG Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Gutenbergstr. 18, 35032, Marburg, Deutschland. trappk@staff.uni-marburg.de
Glombiewski
J A
JA
Hartwich-Tersek
J
J
Rief
W
W
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D001416:Back Pain / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000523:psychology; D010415:Pensions; D012943:Social Security; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*