Seasonal impact on the outcome of multidisciplinary pain therapy

ABSTRACT

Multidisciplinary pain treatment programs (MPTP) have been considered to be the most effective treatment of chronic pain. In this study, we analyzed the influence of seasons on the outcome of chronic pain patients undergoing MPTP. Therefore, a prospective, observational trial was conducted in patients with chronic pain undergoing a 5-week interdisciplinary treatment program. Psychological stabilization (measured by ADS – Allgemeine Depressionsskala) and pain levels (measured by NRS – numeric rating scale) were considered as primary endpoints. As a result of this study, we could show that chronic pain patients (exempt patients with chronic headache) showed a highly significant better improvement in terms of ADS after MPTP when participating in autumn (coefficient: −11.67, p = .004). Patients treated during winter showed a tendency towards a better improvement in ADS scores (coefficient: −6.89, p = .051). These effects were not found in patients suffering from chronic headache. Finally, patients participating in MPTPs during summer, autumn, and winter presented a tendency of higher reduction in pain scores when compared to patients participating in spring. In conclusion, the effect of MPTPs in terms of psychological stabilization is considered to be best during autumn. This should be therefore considered in planning an MPTP in all patients who do not need immediate psychological stabilization. The treatment effect of MPTP on pain seems not being dependent on a specific season.

KEYWORDS:

• Multidisciplinary pain treatment program
• psychological stabilization
• pain levels
• seasons

Disclosure statement

JH is also employee of Sandoz/Hexal. This employment had no influence on design and execution of the trials or on the interpretation of the results. All other authors do not have a potential conflict of interest.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.