[Medical education and communication in primary pain treatment: clinical relevance and pedagogic challenge].

The term education can be understood here as informing the patient about the symptoms of the disease and the treatment. Patients with chronic pain require comprehensible information from the physician and beyond that esteem, encouragement and participation in decision-making processes. A successful patient-physician interaction is a quality ensuring element of the first degree. Imparting information in this context is of special importance which is not only derived from legal and ethical obligations but also from the scientifically proven therapeutic efficacy. A successful communication and relaying of information promotes motivation (compliance) and therapeutic effectiveness from both parties. Comprehensible explanations on biopsychosocial pain, interdisciplinary diagnostics and multimodal pain therapy reduce misunderstandings, false expectations and premature termination of therapy. The explanation of the biopsychosocial pain model opens for the patient a holistic view of the phenomenon of chronic pain and promotes self-help strategies. The question as to how and what should be imparted is not only a question of temporal resources but also represents a pedagogic challenge. The contents and experience imparted in the education are only substantially effective if they lead to a feeling of being personally affected due to being close to real life and plausibility and if the resulting multimodal treatment options can be implemented in the daily routine. The communicative duties of a physician are demanding and require practical training as can be reflected and practiced in the form of train-the-trainer seminars, workshops and Balint groups. It has been proven that competence in counselling techniques also has a positive effect on the experience of the physician in his profession. Pain patients can profit from information flyers, internet and interactive computer-based consulting systems if they fulfil basic standards, including topicality, neutrality, biopsychosocial understanding of disease and preventive information.