[The assignment of orthopaedic rehabilitants to the traditional or the behaviour-medical rehabilitation approach--is it clinically relevant?].

Rehabilitants with chronic orthopaedic diseases are assigned to either the traditional or the behaviour-medical rehabilitation approach by consultant physicians of the rehabilitation department within the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund (German pension insurance agency). The clinical relevance of this assignment was evaluated at the Rehazentrum Bad Pyrmont-Klinik Weser within a randomised controlled trial. In a sample of 363 rehabilitants the agreement of consultant physicians with the ratings of physicians and psychologists in the clinic was analyzed. We also tested whether rehabilitants treated in their assigned approach benefit more from the treatment than patients who by randomisation were not treated in their assigned approach. Results indicate that psychiatric comorbidity frequently is taken into consideration as a decision-making criterion in the assignment made by the consultant physicians. However, there is only little agreement between the assignment by consultant physicians and the ratings by treating physicians and psychologists. Further, rehabilitants treated in their assigned approach did not benefit more from the treatment than patients who due to randomisation had not been treated in their assigned approach but in the other. Therefore, the procedure applied so far for assigning rehabilitants to either the traditional or the multidisciplinary rehabilitation approach is not sufficiently valid. Concluding, implications for the modification of assignment criteria are discussed.