Multimodal Treatment of Patients with Mental Symptom Load: A Pre–Post Comparison
1
Competence Centre for Complementary Medicine and Naturopathy (CoCoNat), Technical University of Munich, 80801 Munich, Germany
2
Institute for Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, CH1903 Zurich, Switzerland
3
TCM Hospital, 93444 Bad Kötzting, Germany
4
Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100105, China
5
Institute of Laboratory Medicine, University Hospital, LMU Munich, 81377 Munich, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
J. Clin. Med. 2019, 8(10), 1610; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8101610
Received: 27 August 2019 / Revised: 26 September 2019 / Accepted: 27 September 2019 / Published: 3 October 2019
(This article belongs to the Section Psychiatry)
The Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Hospital in Bad Kötzting, Germany, is treating chronically ill patients, covering a broad range of indications. The aim of this study was to prove the efficacy of a multimodal intervention combining mainstream medicine with TCM treatments on the severity of psychopathological symptoms. Out of 966 patients with chronic psychosomatic disease treated 2017 at the TCM Hospital, we selected 759 patients according to specific criteria and analyzed the outcomes after multimodal intervention. The patients completed a validated questionnaire (International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD) Symptom-Rating-(ISR)) at admission, discharge, and follow-up. The most frequent ICD-10 diagnoses were “diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue” (28.5%), “mental and behavioral disorders” (23.7%), and “diseases of the nervous system” (13.8%). Regarding ISR symptom load, “depressive syndrome” and “anxiety syndrome” were the leading burdens showing remissions of about 40%–60% with moderate (0.588) to strong (1.115) effect sizes (Cohen’s d) after treatment. ISR total scores at discharge and follow-up were remarkably lower after intervention (0.64 and 0.75, respectively) compared to 1.02 at admission with moderate to strong effect sizes (0.512–0.815). These findings indicate a clinically relevant relief from mental symptom load after intervention with lasting clinical effects for at least six months.
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Keywords:
mental symptom load; psychosomatic disorders; multimodal treatment; ICD-10 symptom rating (ISR); Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM); prospective observational study
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MDPI and ACS Style
Melchart, D.; Fischer, V.; Dai, J.; Hager, S.; Dersch, L.; Bachmeier, B.E. Multimodal Treatment of Patients with Mental Symptom Load: A Pre–Post Comparison. J. Clin. Med. 2019, 8, 1610. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8101610
AMA Style
Melchart D, Fischer V, Dai J, Hager S, Dersch L, Bachmeier BE. Multimodal Treatment of Patients with Mental Symptom Load: A Pre–Post Comparison. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2019; 8(10):1610. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8101610
Chicago/Turabian StyleMelchart, Dieter; Fischer, Volker; Dai, Jingzhang; Hager, Stefan; Dersch, Lisa; Bachmeier, Beatrice E. 2019. "Multimodal Treatment of Patients with Mental Symptom Load: A Pre–Post Comparison" J. Clin. Med. 8, no. 10: 1610. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8101610
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