[Is interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy threatened? : Increasing controversy on the necessity for inpatient treatment]

[Psychosocial factors in pain and pain management : A statement]

Although psychosocial factors have a profound impact on the experience of pain and pain recovery, the transfer to clinical application has so far been insufficient. With this article, a task force of the special interest group "Psychosocial Aspects of Pain" of the German Pain Society (Deutsche Schmerzgesellschaft e. V.) would like to draw attention to the considerable discrepancy between existing scientific evidence on the importance of psychosocial factors in the development of chronic pain disorders and the translation of these findings into the care of pain patients. Our objective is a stronger integration of psychological and psychosomatic expertise in pain treatment and research, as well as the improvement of structural and institutional conditions, to achieve an increased consideration of psychosocial aspects. In this way, modern, integrative and complex pain concepts can reach the patient. Based on these fundamental findings on the importance of psychosocial factors in pain and pain treatment, implications for the transfer to clinic and further research will be shown.

[The judgment of the Federal Social Court on the involvement of psychological psychotherapists in interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy : A critical comment]

In the context of their offer of interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy (day-patient and inpatient), hospitals repeatedly have to contend with strict detailed checks of the procedure codes (OPS 8-918.xx; 8-91c) by health insurers and the medical service. The necessity of day-patient or inpatient treatment in the respective sector, documented therapy components, and the qualifications of the therapists are regularly reviewed. On 27 October 2020, the Federal Social Court ruled on the specific qualification of psychological psychotherapists (BSG, 27 October 2020, Ref.: B 1 KR 25/19 R). The ruling and its potential impact are explained and discussed in this overview.