See my suffering: women with alcohol use disorders and their primary care experiences.
Despite global initiatives to improve the primary care of 2.5 million US women meeting criteria for alcohol use disorders (AUD), many women with serious problems are unseen, misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or ignored. This interpretive phenomenological study explored the meaning of the primary care experience for a small group of women with self-identified AUD. Interviews uncovered suffering. Subsuming themes of Presenting My Damaged Self and Being Silenced/Being Heard revealed potential interventions for primary care practitioners. Analyzed alongside extant literature on suffering, these findings complement and enhance recent important research in the area of diagnosis of and intervention for AUD in primary care.
Vandermause
Roxanne
R
Washington State University, College of Nursing, P. O. Box 1495, Spokane, WA 99210-1495, USA. rvandermause@wsu.edu
Wood
Mary
M
D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D015400:Clinical Nursing Research; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D055809:Illness Behavior; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000451:nursing; D008875:Middle Aged; D009733:Nursing Diagnosis; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012106:Research; D012649:Self Concept; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation