together against pain chronification

30.03.2017 11:33

“We pain doctors want to work together with family doctors to combat the chronicity of pain,” said Dr. Johannes Horlemann, Vice President of the German Society for Pain Medicine (DGS) at the pre-congress of the German Pain and Palliative Care Day. Under the motto “General practitioners and pain physicians – together against pain chronification”, a joint training event by the DGS and the German Association of General Practitioners took place there for the first time. “We want to show interfaces between family doctors and pain doctors, find possible solutions together and optimize collaboration,” Horlemann continued.

Around half of all pain patients suffer from back pain. This shows, for example, B. first evaluations from the DGS Practice Register Pain, the world's largest pain register. This makes back pain a widespread disease that both general practitioners and pain specialists are confronted with every day. According to the recommendations of the National Care Guideline for Back Pain, up to 90 percent of symptomatic herniated discs can be controlled with conservative therapy. Nevertheless, around 100,000 of these patients are operated on in Germany every year. An example that demonstrates the need for optimization in the treatment of back pain.

The situation is similar with headaches, which affect up to 20 percent of patients who come to a general practitioner's practice. Similar to patients with

Back pain, patients with headaches are severely impaired in their everyday lives.

A close exchange between pain doctors and general practitioners should now help to treat pain more successfully. There will also be joint training courses in the future. The specialist societies involved, the German Society for Pain Medicine and the German Association of General Practitioners, also call for interdisciplinary networking on site and, for example, B. to exchange information on specific patient cases.

Further information at www.schrei-und-palliativtag.de