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. 2019 Apr 24:2:1000014.
doi: 10.2340/20030711-1000014. eCollection 2019.

"Sense of Control": Patients' Experiences of Multimodal Pain Rehabilitation and its Impact in their Everyday Lives

Anke Samulowitz  1   2 , Pia Nordstrom  2 , Malin Wiklund  3 , Nenad Stankovic  4 , Gunnel Hensing  1
Affiliations

"Sense of Control": Patients' Experiences of Multimodal Pain Rehabilitation and its Impact in their Everyday Lives

Anke Samulowitz et al. J Rehabil Med Clin Commun. .

Abstract

Objective: Long-lasting pain is a challenge for pa-tients' everyday lives. The aim of this study was to examine how women and men who have participa-ted in multimodal pain rehabilitation experience its impact in their everyday lives.

Patients and methods: Individual semi-structured interviews with 5 women and 3 men who had parti-cipated in multimodal pain rehabilitation at a clinic in Sweden, analysed using qualitative content ana-lysis.

Results: Participants perceived that their "sense of control" increased, which had a positive impact in their everyday life. Sense of control consisted of 3 categories: importance of the patient-provider re-lationship, knowledge gained (especially on body functions and medication), and pain in a social con-text. Three results were discussed in particular: (i) a trustful patient-provider relationship based on confidence in the provider's expertise was a pre-requisite for pain acceptance; (ii) patients were aware of gender norms in healthcare; (iii) social support was not stressed as important to cope with pain.

Conclusion: The importance of patients' confidence in the provider's expertise and patients' awareness about gender norms need consideration in terms of the patient-provider encounter. The value of social support for pain rehabilitation was found to be less important compared with previous research; this should be explored further.

Keywords: acceptance process; chronic pain; gender; social support.

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