gms | German Medical Science

Background: A primary goal of medical rehabilitation is to assist the return to work. A therapeutic problem in this regard is stress intolerance of patients. This can be treated by training of resistance and hardiness, which allows to withstand in the face of demands. On the other hand, patients are typically referred to inpatient rehabilitation to recover from mental illness and overburdening, and to regain strength. This requires to improve regeneration and self care.

Aim: Goal of the present study has been to investigate to which degree routine inpatient psychosomatic rehabilitation increases the orientation of patients towards resistance or regeneration

Method: 121 unselected patients from a psychosomatic rehabilitation hospital were asked to fill in the ReRe-scale (Resistance-Regeneration-Scale) at intake and discharge from the hospital.

Results/findings: In the pre-post-comparison there was a general reduction of resistance orientation and an increase of regeneration orientation. In contrast to resistance orientation, regeneration orientation was found to be associated with a higher rate of readiness to return to work.

Discussion and conclusions: The results of our observation suggest that psychosomatic patients may easily be overtaxed when they are exposed to additional stressors, as it is done in hardiness training. Instead they need a time of recovery, of regaining strength, and of self care. After recovery they seem to be ready to return to work.