[State of the art and tasks of complex rehabilitation of patients with rheumatic diseases in East Germany].

Rehabilitation activities belong to tertiary prevention. The latter includes all measures that aim at avoiding the progression of a physical disability to a handicap, or those that diminish the extent of the handicap. Complex rehabilitation programs represent a cooperation of medical, occupational, and social reintegration. The pertinent state of the art and the unsolved problems are reviewed in this work. In this context, special emphasis is placed on the appropriate division of tasks among rheumatology specialists and general practitioners, as well as others working in the rehabilitation field. In the present decade, worldwide, the need for expanded complex rehabilitation programs will increase markedly.