Abstract
This chapter explores the personal experience of pain from its biological underpinnings to strategies people identified for managing this experience. The somatic experience of chronic pain describes the biological processes involved in pain and how this can become a chronic experience with psychological and social implications. The personal experience of pain is explored through a systematic review of research of qualitative experiences. We found that the experience of pain was similar despite its etiological underpinnings—whatever the biological cause there were similarities in the personal experience. Participants in the studies identified five themes that described these personal experiences: (1) body as obstacle; (2) disrupted sense of self; (3) invisible but real; (4) unpredictability; and (5) keeping going. This section of the chapter is followed by the findings of a systematic review of how older people learn to manage their pain experiences: “adjusting to the inevitable,” “doing it my way without medication” and “the importance of support in managing the struggle.” The chapter concludes by discussing some of the strategies that can be used to manage the self in pain: support for self-management, medication, exercise and psychological interventions (mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy).
Clinical Implications: Many people manage their chronic pain by actively balancing the competing forces of hope and despair. There are similarities in this experience of chronic pain across a range of conditions which has implications for the development of pain management strategies and interventions that address the pain experience and not just the biological condition. Learning to manage the self in pain involves acceptance of pain as on-going and a part of who they are; keeping connected with others; keeping occupied through meaningful activities; getting meaningful support; and developing new meaning in life. Clinical interventions need to a focus on the person’s sense of self, strategies for maintaining hope, strategies that provide relief for the distress associated with pain; and providing people with a sense of control over their experiences both with the pain itself and in their encounters with the medical profession and the use of medication.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Moseley GL, Butler DS. Fifteen years of explaining pain: the past, present, and future. J Pain. 2015;16(9):807–13.
Baliki MN, Apkarian AV. Nociception, pain, negative moods, and behavior selection. Neuron. 2015;87(3):474–91.
Ballantyne JC, Sullivan MD. Intensity of chronic pain—the wrong metric? N Engl J Med. 2015;373(22):2098–9.
Latremoliere A, Woolf CJ. Central sensitization: a generator of pain hypersensitivity by central neural plasticity. J Pain. 2009;10(9):895–926.
Scascighini L, Sprott H. Chronic nonmalignant pain: a challenge for patients and clinicians. Nat Clin Pract Rheumatol. 2008;4(2):74–81.
Monsivais DB, Engebretson JC. Cultural cues: review of qualitative evidence of patient-centered care in patients with nonmalignant chronic pain. Rehabil Nurs. 2011;36(4):166–71.
Maly MR, Krupa T. Personal experience of living with knee osteoarthritis among older adults. Disabil Rehabil. 2007;29:1423–33.
Currie S, Wang J. Chronic back pain and major depression in the general Canadian population. Pain. 2004;107(1–2):54–60.
Arnow B, Blasey C, Lee J, Fireman B, Hunkeler E, Dea R, et al. Relationships among depression, chronic pain, chronic disabling pain and medical conditions. Psychiatr Serv. 2009;60:344–50.
Blair MJ, Robinson RL, Katon WJ, Kroenke K. Depression and pain comorbidity: a literature review. Arch Intern Med. 2003;163:2433–45.
Walker AK, Kavelaars A, Heijnen CJ, Dantzer R. Neuroinflammation and comorbidity of pain and depression. Pharmacol Rev. 2013;66:80–101.
Campbell LC, Clauw DJ, Keefe FJ. Persistent pain and depression: a biopsychosocial perspective. Biol Psychiatry. 2003;54(3):399–409.
Gambassi G. Pain and depression: the egg and the chicken story revisited. Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2009;49:103–12.
Cohen M, Quintner J, Buchanan D, Nielsen M, Guy L. Stigmatization of patients with chronic pain: the extinction of empathy. Pain Med. 2011;12(11):1637–43.
Jackson JE. Stigma, liminality, and chronic pain—mind-body borderlands. Am Ethnol. 2005;32(3):332–53.
Crowe M, Whitehead L, Seaton P, Jordan J, McCall C, Maskill V, et al. Qualitative meta-synthesis: the experience of chronic pain across conditions. J Adv Nurs. 2017;73(5):1004–16.
Osborn M, Smith JA. Living with a body separate from the self. The experience of the body in chronic benign low back pain: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Scand J Caring Sci. 2006;20(2):216–22.
Campbell C, Cramb G. ‘Nobody likes a back bore’—exploring lay perspectives of chronic pain: revealing the hidden voices of nonservice users. Scand J Caring Sci. 2008;22(3):383–90.
Williams S. Chronic illess as biographical disruption or biographical disruption as chronic illness? Sociol Health Illn. 2000;22:241–57.
Eccleston C, Williams C, Rogers W. Patients’ and professionals understandings of the causes of chronic pain: blame, responsibility and identity protection. Soc Sci Med. 1997;45:699–709.
Crowe M, Whitehead L, Gagan MJ, Baxter GD, Pankhurst A, Valledor V. Listening to the body and talking to myself—the impact of chronic lower back pain: a qualitative study. Int J Nurs Stud. 2010;47(5):586–92.
Rhodes L, McPhillips-Tangum C, Marham C, Klenk R. The power of the visible: the meaning of diagnostic tests in chronic back pain. Soc Sci Med. 1999;48:1189–203.
Corbett M, Foster N, Ong B. Living with low back pain. Soc Sci Med. 2007;65(8):1584–94.
British Geriatrics Society. Guidance on the management of pain in older people. Age Ageing. 2013;42:i1–i57.
Keefe FJ, Porter L, Somers T, Shelby R, Wren AV. Psychosocial interventions for managing pain in older adults: outcomes and clinical implications. Br J Anaesth. 2013;111(1):89–94.
Jakobsson U, Hallberg IR, Westergren A. Overall and health related quality of life among the oldest old in pain. Qual Life Res. 2004;13(1):125–36.
Wu M, Brazier JE, Kearns B, Relton C, Smith C, Cooper CL. Examining the impact of 11 long-standing health conditions on health-related quality of life using the EQ-5D in a general population sample. Eur J Health Econ. 2015;16(2):141–51.
Eggermont LH, Leveille SG, Shi L, Kiely DK, Shmerling RH, Jones RN, et al. Pain characteristics associated with the onset of disability in older adults: the maintenance of balance, independent living, intellect, and zest in the elderly Boston study. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2014;62(6):1007–16.
Silva AG, Queiros A, Cerqueira M, Rocha NP. Pain intensity is associated with both performance-based disability and self-reported disability in a sample of older adults attending primary health care centers. Disabil Health J. 2014;7(4):457–65.
Mackichan F, Adamson J, Gooberman-Hill R. ‘Living within your limits’: activity restriction in older people experiencing chronic pain. Age Ageing. 2013;42(6):702–8.
van Hecke O, Torrance N, Smith BH. Chronic pain epidemiology and its clinical relevance. Br J Anaesth. 2013;111(1):13–8.
Torrance N, Elliott AM, Lee AJ, Smith BH. Severe chronic pain is associated with increased 10 year mortality. A cohort record linkage study. Eur J Pain. 2010;14(4):380–6.
Bernfort L, Gerdle B, Rahmqvist M, Husberg M, Levin LA. Severity of chronic pain in an elderly population in Sweden-impact on costs and quality of life. Pain. 2015;156(3):521–7.
Crowe M, Gillon D, Jordan J, McCall C. Older peoples’ strategies for coping with chronic non-malignant pain: a qualitative meta-synthesis. Int J Nurs Stud. 2017;68:40–50.
Lansbury G. Chronic pain management: a qualitative study of elderly people’s preferred coping strategies and barriers to management. Disabil Rehabil. 2000;22(1–2):2–14.
Howarth M, Warne T, Haigh C. Pain from the inside: understanding the theoretical underpinning of person-centered care delivered by pain teams. Pain Manag Nurs. 2014;15(1):340–8.
Clarke KA, Iphofen R. Believing the patient with chronic pain: a review of the literature. Br J Nurs. 2005;14(9):490–3.
Turk DC, Okifuji A. Pain terms and taxonomies. In: Loeser D, Butler SH, Chapman JJ, Turk DC, editors. Bonica’s management of pain. 3rd ed. London: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2001. p. 18–25.
Crowe M, Whitehead L, Gagan M-J, Baxter D, Panckhurst A. Self-management and chronic low back pain: a qualitative study. J Adv Nurs. 2010;66(7):1478–86.
Holm S. Justifying patient self-management – evidence based medicine or the primacy of the first person perspective. Med Health Care Phil. 2005;8:159–64.
Ross M, Carswell A, Hing M, Hollingworth G, Dalziel W. Seniors’ decision making about pain management. J Adv Nurs. 2001;35:442–51.
Schofield P. The assessment of pain in older people: UK national guidelines. Age Ageing. 2018;47(1):i1–i22.
Busse JW, Craigie S, Juurlink DN, Buckley DN, Wang L, Couban RJ, et al. Guideline for opioid therapy and chronic noncancer pain. Can Med Assoc J. 2017;189(18):E659–E66.
George J, Elliott RA, Stewart DC. A systematic review of interventions to improve medication taking in elderly patients prescribed multiple medications. Drugs Aging. 2008;25(4):307–24.
Topinkova E, Baeyens JP, Michel JP, Lang PO. Evidence-based strategies for the optimization of pharmacotherapy in older people. Drugs Aging. 2012;29(6):477–94.
Gaskell H, Derry S, Moore RA. Treating chronic non-cancer pain in older people—more questions than answers? Maturitas. 2014;79(1):34–40.
Marcum ZA, Hanlon JT, Murray MD. Improving medication adherence and health outcomes in older adults: an evidence-based review of randomized controlled trials. Drugs Aging. 2017;34(3):191–201.
Park J, Lavin R, Couturier B. Choice of nonpharmacological pain therapies by ethnically diverse older adults. Pain Manag. 2014;4:389–406.
Geneen LJ, Moore RA, Clarke C, Martin D, Colvin LA, Smith BH. Physical activity and exercise for chronic pain in adults: an overview of Cochrane reviews. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;4:CD011279.
Kredlow MA, Capozzoli MC, Hearon BA, Calkins AW, Otto MW. The effects of physical activity on sleep: a meta-analytic review. J Behav Med. 2015;38(3):427–49.
Martinez-Gomez D, Guallar-Castillon P, Garcia-Esquinas E, Bandinelli S, Rodriguez-Artalejo F. Physical activity and the effect of multimorbidity on all-cause mortality in older adults. Mayo Clin Proc. 2017;92(3):376–82.
Booth J, Moseley GL, Schiltenwolf M, Cashin A, Davies M, Hubscher M. Exercise for chronic musculoskeletal pain: a biopsychosocial approach. Musculoskel Care. 2017;15(4):413–21.
Williams AC, Eccleston C, Morley S. Psychological therapies for the management of chronic pain (excluding headache) in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012;11:CD007407.
Hilton L, Hempel S, Ewing BA, Apaydin E, Xenakis L, Newberry S, et al. Mindfulness meditation for chronic pain: systematic review and meta-analysis. Ann Behav Med. 2017;51(2):199–213.
Kabat-Zinn J. Full catastrophe living: using the wisdom of the body and mind to face stress, pain and illness. New York: Dell; 1990. 722 p.
Ludwig DS, Kabat-Zinn J. Mindfulness in medicine. JAMA. 2008;300:1350–2.
Kabat-Zinn J. Mindfulness-based interventions in context: past, present and future. Clin Psychol Sci Pract. 2003;10:144–56.
Crowe M, Jordan J, Burrell B, Jones V, Gillon D, Harris S. Mindfulness-based stress reduction for long-term physical conditions: a systematic review. Aust NZ J Psychiat. 2016;50(1):21–32.
Hofmann SG, Sawyer AT, Witt AA, Oh D. The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: a meta-analytic review. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2010;78(2):169–83.
Bohlmeijer E, Prenger R, Taal E, Cuijpers P. The effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy on mental health of adults with a chronic medical disease: a meta-analysis. J Psychosom Res. 2010;68(6):539–44.
Khoury B, Lecomte T, Fortin G, Masse M, Therien P, Bouchard V, et al. Mindfulness based therapy: a comprehensive meta-analysis. Clin Psychol Rev. 2013;33:763–71.
Fordyce WE. Behavioral-science and chronic pain. Postgrad Med J. 1984;60(710):865–8.
Ehde DM, Dillworth TM, Turner JA. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for individuals with chronic pain: efficacy, innovations, and directions for research. Am Psychol. 2014;69(2):153–66.
Wilson IR. Management of chronic pain through pain management programmes. Br Med Bull. 2017;124(1):55–64.
Turk DC, Wilson HD, Cahana A. Treatment of chronic non-cancer pain. Lancet. 2011;377(9784):2226–35.
Hughes LS, Clark J, Colclough JA, Dale E, McMillan D. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for chronic pain: a systematic review and meta-analyses. Clin J Pain. 2017;33(6):552–68.
Lunde M, Nordhus IH. Combining acceptance and commitment therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of chronic pain in older adults. Clin Case Stud. 2009;10:125–43.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Crowe, M., Gillon, D., McCall, C., Jordan, J. (2019). “Pain Takes Over Everything”: The Experience of Pain and Strategies for Management. In: van Rysewyk, S. (eds) Meanings of Pain. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24154-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24154-4_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24153-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24154-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)