Manualized psychodynamic-interactional group therapy for the treatment of somatoform pain disorders

Medically unexplained and clinically significant symptoms of pain are highly prevalent in the general population. More than one third of all patients in general practices and various departments of hospitals suffer from somatoform disorders with pain being the main complaint of 70% of these patients. This treatment manual is the first disorder-specific, psychodynamically oriented treatment for these patients. Based on psychodynamic-interactional group psychotherapy, it focuses on disorder-specific aspects as well as on psychic and interpersonal problems which have resulted from adverse childhood experiences and insecure attachment. In three treatment phases comprising an "information and motivational phase" followed by "work" and ultimately "transfer" phase spread over a period of 6 to 7 months, between seven and nine patients were treated in 40 group therapy sessions. The group started with psych oeducational elements intended to inform them about their illness. Through the discussion and formulation of individual treatment goals, the patients are drawn into the work phase of the group therapy, in which the relationship of the patients in the group and their behavior is the main focus of the therapeutic interventions. (Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 74(3) 219-237)