Abstract
Objectives The impact of duration and intensity on outcomes after Interdisciplinary Multimodal Pain Therapy (IMPT) is poorly researched. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of low dose (LD, avg. 25 hours) and high dose IMPT (HD, avg. 110 hours).Methods Patients completed pain-related questionnaires at the beginning (T1), at the end of therapy (T2) and at 3-month follow-up (T3) and were matched according to age, sex, presence of back-pain and pain-related disability at T1, resulting in 32 patients per group. Primary endpoint was the difference in pain-related disability and average pain intensity at T3 between both groups. In addition, early treatment effects and group differences at T2 were analyzed.Results Both groups showed significant improvements in pain-related disability and average pain intensity between T1 and T2. These positive effects persisted in the HD group until the 3-month follow-up, whereas outcomes in the LD group patients deteriorated and were significantly poorer compared to HD at T3.Discussion Within a widely comparable therapeutic setting, high-dose IMPT was associated with longer lasting improvements compared to low-dose IMPT in chronic pain patients, indicating that the “dose” of therapy is a relevant factor for clinical outcomes and should be further investigated.
Effect of Additional Pain Neuroscience Education in Interdisciplinary Multimodal Pain Therapy on Current Pain. A Non-Randomized, Controlled Intervention Study
