Subgroups in chronic low back pain patients - a step toward cluster-based, tailored treatment in inpatient standard care: On the need for precise targeting of treatment for chronic low back pain.

The purpose of this study was to find applicable clusters for the development of different treatment pathways in an inpatient multimodal pain-therapy setting based on the multifaceted nature of CLBP. Based on data of questionnaires (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Marburg Questionnaire on Habitual Health Findings (MFHW), quality of life assessment using the Short-Form 12 (SF 12)), a retrospective two-step cluster analysis involving a sample of chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients (N=320) was calculated. Subsequently, the clusters were precisely described and compared on the basis of further data collected during the patients' standard care: pain characteristics, socio-demographic data and the general state of health, psychological variables, therapy intensity, and Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) data.

Pain-related avoidance versus endurance in primary care patients with subacute back pain: psychological characteristics and outcome at a 6-month follow-up.

Recent research has found individual differences in back pain patients due to behavioral avoidance vs persistence. However, there is a lack of prospective studies of nonspecific low back pain patients. The avoidance-endurance model (AEM) suggests at least 3 pathways leading to chronic pain: fear-avoidance response, distress-endurance response, and eustress-endurance response.

Validation and reliability of the German version of the Chronic Pain Grade questionnaire in primary care back pain patients.

In 1992 Von Korff and his co-workers developed a simple, brief questionnaire to assess the severity of chronic pain problems, the Chronic Pain Grade (CPG). The present study was conducted to analyse the psychometric properties of the translated German version of the CPG within a population of primary care back pain patients (n=130). Factor analysis yielded two factors which accounted for 72% of the variance of the questionnaire.