Der Schmerz
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The gate control theory resulted in intensified consideration and investigation of psychological factors in the pathogenesis and continuation of chronic pain. This had led to an increasing interest in the efficacy of psychotherapy for such patients. The different forms of psychotherapy (hypnosis, relaxation, behavior therapy, psychodynamically oriented therapy) currently most often applied are reviewed with notes on the methods and the efficacy recorded for each. ⋯ The small numbers of patients evaluated in most of the studies suggest that the population investigated may well not be representative, especially if the difficulty of motivating chronic pain patients to present for psychotherapy is taken into account. In addition, a diagnostic classification of the population investigated is lacking. Conclusions are drawn for the planning of future therapy studies.
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Tursky's pain perception profile [16] has been revised and adapted for use in German-speaking conditions, and this new modification is presented. It integrates six different methods of clinical and experimental methods of clinical and experimental pain measurement, which are intended to meet the enhanced demands put forward in pain research for multivariate measurement of pain by a variety of methods. ⋯ The results document the many aspects of chronic pain and the necessity for multimodal measurement. In addition, they supply a means of achieving a better pain-related classification of pain patients on an experimental basis.