Chairs:
Per Fink 1,3, MD, PhD, DMSc. Professor and head of department.
Majbritt Mostrup Pedersen 2, MSc, PhD. Clinical psychologist experienced in psychotherapy and multidisciplinary pain treatment.
Lise Kirstine Gormsen 1,2, MD, PhD. Experienced clinician, educator and researcher in FSD and pain.
- 1) The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark
- 2) The Pain and Headache Clinic, The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark
- 3) Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark
Pain is a common symptom in functional somatic disorders (FSDs). Most of the conditions included in the ICD-11 under the diagnosis of primary pain may thus as well be diagnosed as FSD.
The Pain Clinic at Arhus University Hospital was established in 2014 as a partnership between the Department of Neurology and The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics.
The Pain Clinic has two treatment tracks: one for patients with FSD and one for patients with neuropathic pain.
After triage, the patients are referred to a clinical examination. The diagnostic interview includes a meticulous review of their medical records and electronic questionaries' completed by the patients prior to the appointment. If relevant, a physical examination, blood screening and/or referral to scanning are included. Medical conferences are held regularly to present and discuss the patient's diagnosis and treatment plan. If the diagnosis single-organ musculoskeletal FSD is established, the patient will be offered treatment such as a brief psychoeducational intervention, medical treatment (e.g., low-dose antidepressant), graded exercise program, and extensive psychotherapy in either an individual- or group-based format. Patients with FSD multisystemic type can be referred to The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics.
In this workshop, we will present the organizational structure of the pain clinic and how we diagnose and treat patients with FSD/primary pain in a multidisciplinary setting. Furthermore, the challenges in using FSD diagnoses instead of or in combination with pain disorder diagnoses will be addressed as well as patients' reactions to their diagnoses and the resulting influence on illness beliefs and adherence to treatment.
The workshop will be interactive, with time for questions, reflections and discussions. You will learn how do diagnose and treat patients with FSD/primary pain.