Follow-up results of aftercare near in residential neighborhood after psychosomatic rehabilitation treatment

Attention has been repeatedly drawn to the necessity to support patients af ter psychosomatic rehabilitation with their transfer of skills acquired dur ing their stay at the interface between their inpatient treatment and their reintegration into everday life. The authors' concept of the outpatient af tercare was already introduced in an earlier paper. This article presents t he results of the one-year follow-up. A comparison with a control group rev ealed a further reduction of patients' depression. In contrast to the contr ol group, the reduction in fear and discomfort already achieved during inpa tient rehabilitation remained stable. At the same time the ability to cope with everyday life was expanded, Compared with the control group the partic ipants of the aftercare could reduce the absence from work, days spent in h ospital and visits to the doctor more than twice as much. Methodological pr oblems of the design of the study are critically discussed.