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

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.

A Comparative Study of the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Mental Health, Healthcare Access, and Pain Levels of Patients with Chronic Pain from Spring 2020 to Spring 2021

“…Sense of safety and stability during the pandemic is associated with maintaining continuity of care. 19 , 87 The fact that personal safety declined even though the healthcare system had been fully functioning since May 2020, combined with the significant decrease in the score distribution of future security, leads us to believe that this is an ongoing, inner process that is still happening. The impact of the pandemic on patients’ personal safety and future security is dynamic and remains to be seen, as the effects of the pandemic are already spreading across the socioeconomic and political life of a country that emerged recently from a severe economic crisis.…”

Lived Experiences of Chronic Pain Patients Attending Follow-up Visits at a Pain Clinic During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Thailand

“…However, implementation of new services, adapted from strategies developed within the western context, as well as the preference of the local staff might be inappropriate or not meeting the particular needs of chronic pain patients visiting the pain clinic [9][10][11][12] . A previous qualitative study exploring lived experience of chronic pain patients called for more understanding from clinicians and for providing support that meets the actual needs of individual patients [13][14][15] . The evidence from previous studies described lived experiences of chronic pain patients under the era of the COVID-19 pandemic as presenting unique experences generated from each particular context [13][14][15][16][17] .…”

“…A previous qualitative study exploring lived experience of chronic pain patients called for more understanding from clinicians and for providing support that meets the actual needs of individual patients [13][14][15] . The evidence from previous studies described lived experiences of chronic pain patients under the era of the COVID-19 pandemic as presenting unique experences generated from each particular context [13][14][15][16][17] . Being subjective, experience of pain accompanying with this reason encouraged the researchers' enthusiasm for allocatin pain clinic services and realizing the importance of taking into account the needs of chronic pain patients living in a COVID-19 world.…”

“…To date, in Thailand, there is a scarcity of information about how the COVID-19 pandemic affects patients with chronic pain in addition to the way they perceived the service changes as well as their needs. A clear understanding of these points of concern will help the providers to better appreciate and empathize the needs from the patients' point of view, which provide basis to design meaningful services and care to meets their needs 13,18 .…”

Influence of Cannabinoid Treatment on Trajectories of Patient-Related Outcomes in Chronic Pain: Pain Intensity, Emotional Distress, Tolerability and Physical Disability

“…The traditional outcomes reported in RCTs, such as the numeric rating scale for pain, do not represent optimal patient-related experiences of change in illness. As described recently, chronic pain patients react with significant heterogeneity to strategies against changes such as external stressors, and may require different mental, physical or social coping activities [ 3 ]. Cannabinoid studies often report average pain intensity and pain relief, and some report emotional and physical functioning and side effects.…”