Pain related impairment and the ability to function in herniated disc patients during rehabilitation

Herniated discs usually occur in middle aged persons. For some the pain is so serious that an operation is necessary. Yet despite modern micro-surgical methods for operations, approximately one-third of the patients continue to report ongoing limitations. The reasons for insufficient success of therapy however lie not only in the illness as such. This study is intended to examine the changes in the subjective success parameters of pain-related impairment and the ability to function in herniated disc patients during rehabilitation. Using multivariate analyses, the influence of sociodemographic, illness-specific, work-related and mental variables on changes in goal variables is shown. 214 herniated disc patients were interviewed before the operation, after post-operative therapy, and six months after surgery. Before their operation, herniated disc patients experienced a severe limitation of activity and ability in everyday function due to pain. About three-fourth of the patients experienced significant improvement in both variables after the operation and post-operative therapy. The influence factors for a successful therapy outcome were male gender and higher educational level. Risk factors were increasing age, a desire for a pension, severe illness symptoms and severe pre-operative depression. In addition to somatic therapy, higher risk patients should receive psychological or social and employment counselling as a support to post-operative therapy.