Struggling for a normal life: Work as an individual self-care management strategy among persons living with non-malignant chronic pain

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A significant part of the population suffers from non-malignant chronic pain that is not treated by pain specialists. No successful long-term treatment exists. The patients have to deal with their condition in collaboration with health personnel establishing treatment programmes under uncertain circumstances with few guidelines. Thus, there is a strong need for knowledge on how patients with chronic non-malignant pain manage their condition. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to explore how patients with chronic non-malignant pain deal with their condition. METHODS: Twenty patients with chronic non-malignant pain (aged 26-63 in year 2006) told in an open-ended interview situation, how they lived with and dealt with their condition. The interviews were analysed within a phenomenological meaning condensation framework. RESULTS: For all patients the pain was as an integrated part of their life that required huge efforts to cope with. Typically, the patients experienced loneliness, fear of stigmatization and despair because of their unpredictable condition, and they wanted to come back to a normalized daily life, first and foremost by getting back to paid work. CONCLUSIONS: In general, the patients developed individual strategies that were influenced by their local contexts and life situation as well as the pain itself. This may be interpreted in line with Bourdieu's notions of habitus, strategies and social capital.

The work of return to work. Challenges of returning to work when you have chronic pain: a meta-ethnography

“…Pain was seen as a major obstacle to return to work 27–29. A plethora of strategies to manage it were described,28–33 including use of sick leave 12 34…”

Work-Health Management Interference for Workers with Chronic Health Conditions: Construct Development and Scale Validation

“…2 Importantly, although we take an "interference" approach, we do not mean to imply that work is solely or mainly detrimental to workers with CHCs. To the contrary, we acknowledge that work is important to wellbeing for workers with CHCs (Gignac et al 2014;Nilsen and Anderssen 2014). Yet, at the same time, we argue that understanding WHMI is critical to efforts to promote sustainable work for workers with CHCs.…”

Do current methods of measuring the impact of chronic pain on work reflect the experience of working-age adults? An integrated mixed-methods systematic narrative review

“…The existence of the fear avoidance beliefs questionnaire (and used in 6 quantitative studies) 18 , 19 , 26 , 32 , 39 , 50 resonates with the descriptions of fear of movement affecting engagement in work that was reported in the qualitative literature. 3 , 30 , 34 , 35 Other impacts that were integrated qualitative/qualitised codes included support from supervisors or employers and job control and were reported in terms of both being positive impacts when present and negative impacts when absent. Finally, as a facilitator to engagement in work in the context of chronic pain, self-efficacy was reported extensively in qualitative literature 35 , 36 , 42 , 43 but was assessed quantitatively by a single stand-alone item.…”