Browsing by Subject "Chronic pain"

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“I can’t imagine what it’s like to not have hope” : preliminary results from a qualitative study of stress and coping in young adults with chronic pain
(2016-12) Murphy, Susan Laura; McCarthy, Christopher J.
The current study aims to investigate the stress experiences and coping resources of young adults with chronic pain. Participants between the ages of 18 and 35 with a variety of chronic pain conditions will participate in a semi-structured interview about their experiences with pain. These interviews will be transcribed and coded using consensual qualitative research methodology. Preliminary results are presented from a subsample of participants.
Quality of life and the impairment effects of pain in a chronic pain patient population as potentially moderated by self-compassion
(2011-08) Shattah, Michael Joseph; Schallert, Diane L.; Neff, Kristin
Due to the subjective nature of pain and the profound debilitating effects of pain for a growing number of people, there are many challenges to approaching and fully addressing its problems. The traditional biomedical model of health limits its treatment focus to the physical components of pain. Biomedicine provides useful and effective short-term relief of bodily symptoms, but usually cannot cure pain that persists in both mind and body over time. Because chronic pain is often accompanied with discomfort, depression, and other significant life impairments, health researchers have recently conceptualized more comprehensive models to address pain. In the bio-psycho-social-spiritual health model, chronic pain is assessed and treated in the context of a person’s overall quality of life, considering biological, psychological, social, and spiritual health conditions. This movement towards adopting integrative health care models can also provide patient guidance needed for developing inner resources to adapt to pain, as well as recover from and prevent disease. Self-compassion comes from a fertile field of inquiry emerging out of a wider conception of health that includes spirituality. The construct is based on three related components that can assist a person living with pain: (a) being kind to oneself while in pain or suffering, (b) perceiving difficult times as shared human experiences, and (c) holding painful thoughts and feelings with mindfulness, instead of over-identification. Measured using the Self-Compassion Scale, it demonstrates positive associations with a variety of health indicators. However, a direct relationship with chronic pain has not yet been examined. In applying recent research in quality of life (QoL) and self-compassion to a chronic pain patient population, the purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to produce a comprehensive assessment of bio-psycho-social-spiritual QoL conditions (b) to examine differences in QoL with the presence of self-compassion and determine its potential moderating effect on life impairments due to pain. From this project, the QoL conditions that are affected by chronic pain and the moderation effect of self-compassion will be understood better so that more effective treatment and prevention procedures can be developed for people living with pain from long-term disease conditions.
Talking about torment : agency assignment and grammatical metaphor in pain communication
(2020-05-13) Wang, Yiwei (Ph. D. in communication studies); McGlone, Matthew S; Bessarabova, Elena; Donovan, Erin E; Vangelisti, Anita L
People suffering from pain often express their experience in metaphor. Empirical research suggests that the metaphors they use may shed light on their adjustment to pain conditions. While linguistic agency and pain metaphors often co-occur, no study has examined how people assign agency when describing pain and the impact of agency assignment on message receivers’ perceptions and responses. This research investigated 1) patterns of linguistic agency assignment in individuals’ descriptions of pain differing in intensity and duration, and 2) the impact of linguistic cues (i.e., agency assignment and grammatical category) used in fictitious pain narratives on audience’s pain perception. Two studies are reported. Study 1 investigated the language people spontaneously use to articulate their experience of mild vs. severe and acute vs. chronic pain. The author hypothesized that participants would be more likely to assign agency to pain or body parts where pain is localized (e.g., back) when describing chronic and/or severe pain than when describing acute and/or mild pain. As predicted, pain/body agency assignment rate was higher in the chronic vs. acute pain condition. However, there was no significant difference in the pain/body agency assignment rate between the severe and mild pain conditions. Study 2 featured a 3 (pain location: back, head, or joint) × 2 (agency assignment: person or pain/body) × 2 (pain process encoding: verb or nominalization) factorial experimental design. Participants read a pain narrative differing in linguistic cues and then rated their perception of the speaker and their pain. Findings from univariate analyses of covariance indicated that pain/body agency predicted higher ratings of perceived pain intensity and duration and lower ratings of internal locus of control and pain responsibility than human agency. However, no significant effect of agency assignment and nominalization were found on perceived pain affect, pain-related disability, sympathy, and support for higher dose. Pain perception was also subjected to individual differences in medical expertise, personal pain history, and experience of caretaking. This research offers insight to researchers and healthcare professionals about the influence of various linguistic choices in pain description on others’ interpretation of sufferers’ experience and their subsequent reactions.