23.11.2016“Graded Balance”: A way out of the Vicious Circle of Chronic Back Pain

Prof. Dr. Monika Hasenbring, Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Faculty of Medicine, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Almost everyone has experienced it at least once in their lives: severe acute back pain, half of the population suffers from discomfort that sometimes lasts for months, in 10% of the cases the pain becomes a chronic affliction. Psychological factors such as enduring negative stress in everyday life and our pain-coping mechanisms play a major part in the transition from acute to chronic pain. Negative stress influences our nervous system: our chemical messengers become more receptive to pain, stronger pain in turn increases stress levels: a vicious circle. “Graded Balance” is a step-by-step concept of diagnostics and therapy. It integrates psychological mechanisms into medical therapy, physiotherapeutic applications, as well as psychological pain therapy. Its objective is to prevent pain from becoming chronic at an early stage und effectively alleviate chronic pain.