Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

There appears to be no single pill, potion, or therapy that provides a cure for chronic pain. This is because pain is a complex mélange of emotions, culture, experience, spirit, and sensation. To effectively palliate pain, pain patients must be empowered to be an active and viable part of treatment decisions. As health care professionals, there are many things that can be done to facilitate this empowerment. Some key elements for pain patient empowerment include (a) multidisciplinary pain management, (b) education and information, (c) active patient participation in treatment decisions, (d) being respectful of patient hope and will to live, (e) understanding the need for human connections, and (f) compassion.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Pain Society. (1999, February17). Chronic pain in America: Roadblocks to relief: Survey highlight. Retrieved February 26, 2002, from http://www.ampainsoc.org/whatsnew/summary 30499.htm

Burn victim’s strong will credited for her survival. (2002, January 30). The Modesto Bee, p. A-4.

Drum, D. (1999). The chronic pain management sourcebook. Los Angeles: Lowell House.

Fordyce, W. (1976). Behavioral methods for chronic pain and illness. St. Louis, MO: C.V. Mosby.

International Association for the Study of Pain, Subcommittee on Taxonomy & H. Merskey. (Eds.). (1986). Classification of chronic pain syndromes and definitions of pain terms. Pain (Suppl. 3), S1-S226.

Joranson, D., & Lietman, R. (1994). The McNeil national pain study. New York: Louis Harris and Associates.

Koch, H. (1986). The management of chronic pain in office-based ambulatory care: National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (Advance data from Vital and Health Statistics, No. 123; DHHS Publication No. PHS 86-1250). Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Public Health Service.

Marketdata Enterprises. (1999). Pain management programs: A market analysis. Tampa, FL: Author.

Morris, D.B. (1991). The culture of pain. Berkeley: University of California Press.

10.

National Institutes of Health. (1998, April). Gender and pain: Future directions. Available from http://wwwl.od.nih.gov/painresearch/genderand pain/future.htm

11.

Sternbach, R.A. (1968). Pain: A psychophysiological analysis. San Diego: Academic Press.

12.

Sternbach, R.A. (1974). Pain patients: Traits and treatment. San Diego: Academic Press

13.

Sternbach, R.A. (1977). Psychological aspects of chronic pain. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 129, 150-155.

14.

Tollison, C.D. (1998). Pain and its magnitude. In R.S. Weiner (Ed.), Pain management: A practical guide for clinicians (5th ed., pp. 3-6). Boca Raton, FL: St Lucie.

15.

Turk, D., & Melzack, R. (2001). Handbook of pain assessment. New York: Guilford.

Empowering the Pain Patient to Make Treatment Decisions

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References