These results verify an insufficient structural quality in palliative care in Lower-Saxony. In the authors' opinion effective improvements can only be achieved by implementing a parallel strategy:improvement of basic knowledge in pain management with sufficient transfer of this knowledge into practice as well as raising the rate of availability of opioid-prescription-forms,and, on the other hand, establishing local palliative-care-teams with nursing and medical expertise with 24/7 on-demand availability to optimize palliative care.

When sufficiently supported at home by palliative experts the number of patients dying at home is reasonably higher than the rate observed under regular conditions. This would also comply with the wishes of most patients who prefer to die in the privacy of their own home. The project data suggest that the concept of SUPPORT should be capable to improve the current state of palliative medicine in other areas of Germany as well.

Certain psychic structures which are represented in special configurations of MMPI scale values--the 'neurotic triad' and the 'conversion V'--are said to be typical of chronic pain patients. But considering the problems of reliability and validity of MMPI scales and new theoretical reflections regarding psychosomatic disorders, the diagnostic information given by these scale-based descriptions seems to be low. The present study examines the MMPI patterns of patients suffering from chronic headaches (N = 45) and chronic low back pain (N = 45) in comparison with a control group (N = 33) to obtain more relevant diagnostic information. Both pain groups claim to have strange bodily sensations accompanied by anxiety. Headache patients as well as low back pain patients tend to deny feelings of anger and aggressiveness. In comparison with the control group all pain patients adapt themselves to their immediate social environment to a much higher degree.

For methodological reasons our study may underestimate the true prevalence of migraine in Germany. Taking our rather "conservative" figures into account, our study reveals, however, that there are more than 2 million migraine sufferers in Germany between 16 and 69 years of age.

In pain clinics, thorough documentation of patient-related data is essential for analysis of patient history, long-term evaluation of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, and research on the etiology and epidemiology of chronic pain syndromes. With these requirements in mind, we realized a microcomputer documentation system based on a commercial data-base software concept (dBASE). Each patient's data are stored in three different sections: data for identification, basic data (mainly diagnostic findings), and treatment related follow-up data. The program was initially developed to run on a single IBM/XT- or AT-compatible computer (at least 640 kB RAM, 1 hard-disk-drive) with MS-DOS but has now been improved to work on a local area network (LAN) with the NOVELL-Netware operating system. Important features of our new system are: multi-user capability, flexible data management via menu-driven user dialogue, rapid data access, and high compatibility allowing data exchange with other standard software packages. The microcomputer documentation system offers listings for administration as well as effective patient scheduling thanks to a recall system by date of last contact, selected therapeutic procedures and any other item in the medical record. A mail-merge service can be applied, which is particularly useful for follow-up-studies. The documentation system means routine work can be standardized and performed in an economical manner, with the ultimate aim of enhancing the quality of pain therapy.