Antecedents of Chronic Pain: Patient View on Cause (original) (raw)

Abstract

Patients’ own explanatory models, including those of causation, have bearing on subsequent illness behaviour and the degree of concordance between patients’ and practitioners’ accounts can impact on treatment outcomes. The multidimensional, subjective nature of chronic pain makes research into causation particularly challenging. The objective of this study was to explore patients’ own understandings of the cause of their chronic pain. Methods: As part of a cross-sectional survey on chronic pain, free text commentaries of patients’ perceptions on cause were invited from respondents. Data from 548 adults were analysed qualitatively for recurrent themes relating to pain antecedents, and subsequently transformed into quantitative variables. Results and conclusion: This study found that people have well-conceptualised explanations for the causes of their chronic pain, and these often involved a combination of lay and biomedical constructs. Over half of all respondents gave commentaries describing more than one cause. This complexity may not be captured adequately in research, yet may have significant bearing on the management of chronic pain. Free text commentaries provide a useful tool to achieve data on complex phenomena in health research.

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