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. 2022 Apr 5:15:969-981.
doi: 10.2147/JPR.S351846. eCollection 2022.

Living with Chronic Pain During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis

Anna Marie Balestra  1 , Katharina Chalk  1 , Claudia Spies  1 , Claudia Denke  1 , Henning Krampe  1 , Sascha Tafelski  1
Affiliations

Living with Chronic Pain During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis

Anna Marie Balestra et al. J Pain Res. .

Abstract

Purpose: COVID-19 pandemic containment measures have led to changes in various areas of life, including restrictions on health care. Patients with chronic pain may have faced an increased burden during pandemic and the resources of this vulnerable population are unknown. Therefore, a qualitative study was conducted to understand how people with chronic pain have experienced the course of the pandemic.

Patients and methods: Twenty semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted six months after the initial lockdown in Germany. The participants were patients with chronic pain who exhibited varying changes in their pain during the first German lockdown, recruited from a German outpatient pain clinic at a Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care. The semi-structured interview guidelines were designed to explore how patients with chronic pain experienced their pain during the pandemic, how they coped, and how they experienced pain management during this time. The interview recordings were transcribed verbatim and coded using the qualitative content analysis method.

Results: Four themes emerged from the results: differential impact on pain experience, difficulty coping with pain, supportive pain management, and endurance.

Conclusion: During this uncertain time, it was particularly important to maintain pain treatment in order to establish a sense of safety and stability. This underscores the special role of maintaining therapeutic contact during a pandemic and the potentially special role of telemedicine.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; chronic pain; coping; mental distress; telemedicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Claudia Spies reports grants from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft/German Research Society, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)/German Aerospace Center, Einstein Stiftung Berlin/Einstein Foundation Berlin, Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss/Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), Projektträger im DLR/Project Management Agency, Stifterverband/Non-Profit Society Promoting Science and Education, European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Baxter Deutschland GmbH, Cytosorbents Europe GmbH, Fresenius Medical Care, Grünenthal GmbH, Masimo Europe Ltd., Pfizer Pharma PFE GmbH, Georg Thieme Verlag, Dr. F. Köhler Chemie GmbH, Sintetica GmbH, Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft e.V./Philips, Stiftung Charité, AGUETTANT Deutschland GmbH, AbbVie Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, Amomed Pharma GmbH, InTouch Health, Copra System GmbH, Correvio GmbH, Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss/Federal Joint Committee (G-BA)-Innovationsfond, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V., Deutsche Gesellschaft für Anästhesiologie & Intensivmedizin (DGAI, Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft e.V./Metronic, Philips Electronics Nederland BV, BMBF/RKI, BMBF, and Drägerwerk AG & Co. KGaA, outside the submitted work; in addition, Claudia Spies has patents licensed to International Patent Germany: 10 2014 215 211.9, 10 2018 114 364.8, 10 2018 110 275.5, 50 2015 010 534.8, 50 2015 010 347.7 and 10 2014 215 212.7. The authors report no other potential conflicts of interest for this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Summary of findings from the qualitative analysis on the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic by people with chronic pain disease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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