[Deficits in the psychological care of low back pain patients--Comments on the expertise of the expert committee for the health care system regarding low back pain].

A committee of health specialists examined the demand characteristics and efficiency of German health care services and published an expertise on the misallocation of services that among other subjects also covered the area of low back pain. Although we agree with their principal statements, we like to underscore that the objectives mentioned in the report cannot be achieved without the participation of psychologists. The process of chronicity is determined in a significant way by psychological mechanisms. Psychologists investigated these mechanisms, developed interventions for the prevention and treatment of low back pain on the basis of the results, and tested their efficacy in trials with a high methodological standard. Incorporation of psychological expertise does not only optimise prevention and treatment of low back pain and helps to prevent unnecessary suffering of the afflicted, in addition, it offers a contribution a cost containment.