[The psychosomatics of chronic back pain. Classification, aetiology and therapy].

An overview is given on the current classification, description and treatment of chronic pain with causally relevant psychological factors. It is based on the "practice guidelines on somatoform disorders" and on a thematically related meta-analysis. The classificatory problems, especially of the demarcation of somatoform and other chronic pain, are presented. Additional descriptive dimensions of the relevant psychosocial factors are: pain description, other organically unexplained pain- and non-pain-symptoms, anxiety and depression, disease conviction and illness behaviour, personality and childhood abuse. A modified psychotherapy for (somatoform) chronic pain is outlined. Finally, this aetiologically oriented psychosomatic-psychiatric approach is compared to psychological coping models for chronic pain.