Chronic pain and psychodynamic body therapy: A controlled outcome study

Forty patients with pain disorders participated in a controlled study. Half of the patients were treated with psychodynamic body therapy (PBT)for 33 s essions, and the other half received treatment as usual (TAU) or no treatme nt (NTAU). All patients were evaluated before therapy (TI), at the end of t herapy (T2), and at 1-year follow-up (T3) with a visual-analogue (VAS)-pain scale (subjective experience of pain), symptom checklist (SCL-90-R), inven tory of interpersonal problems (IIP-C), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality I nventory (MMPI), and the affect-consciousness interview (ACI). The study de monstrated that at IZ the pain was significantly reduced in the PET group c ompared to the controls, and 50% of the PET patients reported no pain. The findings further showed a significant and substantial change on level of so matization, depression, anxiety, denial, assertiveness, and social withdraw al, and increased affect consciousness. The results remained stable at T3, and the PET patients even continued their improvement on some scales during follow-up.