An interdisciplinary multimodal integrative healthcare program for somatic symptom disorder, with predominant (spinal) pain

Jaap Wijnen*, Geert Van 't Hullenaar, Nicole Louise Gordon, Marc Lucas Pont, Marciano Wilhelmina Henricus Geijselaers, Jessica Van Oosterwijck, Jeroen De Jong

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Although multimodal interventions are generally recommended in patients with long-term somatic symptom disorders (SSD), available evidence is limited. The current study evaluates the effectiveness of an outpatient secondary care interdisciplinary multimodal integrative healthcare program for patients with SSD and predominant (spinal) pain.

METHOD: The healthcare program consisted of two active treatment phases: main 20-week program and a 12-month relapse prevention program. Participants were 4453 patients diagnosed with SSD. The primary outcome was health-related quality of life (HRQoL) assessed using the RAND-36 (i.e., mental/physical component summary) and secondary outcomes included physical and psychological symptoms assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and RAND-36 subscales. Mixed linear models were used to examine the effects of the multimodal healthcare program on primary/secondary outcomes over four time points: before start 20-week program (T0), halfway 20-week program (T1), end of 20-week program (T2) and end of relapse prevention program (T3).

RESULTS: Significant improvements were found from T0 to T2 for all primary variables (i.e., mental/physical component summary) and secondary variables (i.e., BSI/RAND-36 subscales), which were maintained until the end of the relapse prevention program (T3).

CONCLUSION: An interdisciplinary multimodal integrative treatment for SSD is effective for improving HRQoL and reducing physical and psychological symptoms.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)581-594
Number of pages14
JournalPsychotherapy Research
Volume33
Issue number5
Early online date16 Dec 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Jul 2023

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