Impact of treatment dose on patient outcomes after Interdisciplinary Multimodal Pain Therapy

Objectives: The impact of duration and intensity on outcomes after Interdisciplinary Multimodal Pain Therapy (IMPT) is poorly researched. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of low dose ( LD , avg. 25 hours) and high dose IMPT ( HD , avg. 110 hours). Methods: Patients completed pain-related questionnaires at the beginning (T1), at the end of therapy (T2) and at 3-month follow-up (T3) and were matched according to age, sex, presence of back-pain and pain-related disability at T1, resulting in 32 patients per group. Primary endpoint was the difference in pain-related disability and average pain intensity at T3 between both groups. In addition, early treatment effects and group differences at T2 were analyzed. Results: Both groups showed significant improvements in pain-related disability and average pain intensity between T1 and T2. These positive effects persisted in the HD group until the 3-month follow-up, whereas outcomes in the LD group patients deteriorated and were significantly poorer compared to HD at T3. Discussion: Within a widely comparable therapeutic setting, high-dose IMPT was associated with longer lasting improvements compared to low-dose IMPT in chronic pain patients, indicating that the “dose” of therapy is a relevant factor for clinical outcomes and should be further investigated.