title: "But I know what works"--patients' experience of spinal cord injury neuropathic pain management.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore and obtain increased knowledge about (i) strategies and treatments used by individuals with neuropathic pain following spinal cord injury (SCI) for handling long-term pain, and (ii) their experience, needs and expectations of SCI neuropathic pain management.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative methods with an emergent research design were used. Eighteen informants who suffered from long-term SCI neuropathic pain participated. Data were collected with diaries and thematized research interviews. Content analysis and constant comparison according to grounded theory were used for the analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A model with four categories emerged: "Pain is my main problem" explained the impact of pain in the informants' everyday life; "Drugs--the health care solution" described the informants' experience of pain management; "The gap in my meeting with health care" described the discrepancy between what the informants wanted and what health care could offer. "But...this works for me" described treatments and strategies, which the informants found helpful for pain control and pain relief.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Neuropathic pain, one of the major problems following SCI, is difficult to treat successfully. To improve treatment outcome, health care needs to listen to, respond to and respect the patient's knowledge, experience and wishes. Future research needs to address treatments that patients find effective.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine Stockholm, Danderyd Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. monika.lofgren@ki.se
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Löfgren
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Norrbrink
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D059408:Pain Management / Q000523:psychology*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome