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Introduction: Recent recommendations for the treatment of chronic pain patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic suggest using telemedicine instead of in‐person consultations. Knowing whether patients with chronic pain are receptive to the use of telemedicine during a pandemic might improve tailored care. Objective: The aims of the present study were to assess patients' acceptance of telemedicine during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Switzerland and to examine the correlation of acceptance with pain intensity and anxiousness. Methods: An anonymous survey was conducted from March 31, 2020, to July 30, 2020, with 61 patients referred to the Pain Center at the Bern University Hospital Inselspital in Bern, Switzerland. Collected data were analyzed descriptively, and correlations were calculated between acceptance of telemedicine and mean levels of current pain, psychological distress, and fear of COVID‐19. Results: Our main finding was an average level of acceptance of telemedicine, with a mean of 6.25 on a scale from 0 (not at all) to 10 (completely), with substantial variability and range (SD = 3.56). The acceptance of telemedicine correlated negatively with current mean pain level (r = −0.44), worries (r = −0.42), and fear of COVID‐19 (r = −0.4), as well as positively with the general condition (r = 0.46). Conclusions: Using telemedicine for chronic pain treatment during the COVID‐19 crisis was accepted to a sufficient degree by a considerable proportion of patients. However, the higher the mean levels of pain and anxiousness, the lower the acceptance, indicating that these severely burdened patients may suffer most from treatment restrictions. For this subgroup, telemedicine might not suffice and in‐person visits should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aversive childhood stress and its implications für expert reports using the example of chronic pain Abstract. Insurance-medical questions regarding the consequences of severe aversive childhood stress arise in the context of psychiatric and psychosomatic expert reports. In psychiatric expert reports, the insurance-medical weighting of disorders of thinking, feeling and behaviour is in the foreground. In psychosomatic expert reports the assessment of limited performance with regard to functional body symptoms are considered to be most important. The majority of expert reports in the psychosomatic field concern people with chronic pain disorders. Pain disorders can develop insidiously over the years or be triggered by accidents. For expert reports of chronic pain conditions, guidelines have been developed by the corresponding specialist bodies in Switzerland. These have been available in German and French since 2019 (www.sappm.ch). The following overview focuses on expert reports of chronic pain disorders and is based on the Swiss guidelines mentioned above. The demanding nature of writing such expert reports is also recognized by specialists in other European countries.