title: Chronic pain affects the whole person--a phenomenological study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this qualitative study was to explore participants' perspectives on the effects of chronic pain on the psychophysical unity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-four chronic pain outpatients were interviewed, and the transcribed interviews were analysed with Giorgi's four-phase phenomenological method. The mean age of the participants was 48 years, and 19 of them were women. For 21 of the participants, the pain duration was more than 5 years, and most had degenerative spinal pain.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results of this whole research project indicated that the phenomenon chronic pain consisted of four essential themes: Pain affects the whole person, invisibility, negativity, and dominance of pain. This study concentrates only on one theme "Chronic pain affects the whole person", in which were found eight subthemes in the interviews. The strongest argument made by the participants was not the physical pain itself but the psychosocial consequences, such as distress, loneliness, lost identity, and low quality of life which were their main problems.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In multidisciplinary holistic rehabilitation, it is essential to take care of the patient's psychological distress. A potential source of psychosocial symptoms may be the subjective responses to experience of chronic pain due to the subjective meanings of pain. Implications for Rehabilitation About chronic pain Pain is an experience, not only an aversive sensation. Intensity of pain describes only the sensation, not the experience of pain. In chronic pain, the main complaint may be not the physical pain, but the distress. In rehabilitation, the patient needs to be taken as a whole person. Multidisciplinary rehabilitation, including patient counselling should be the fundamental part of treatment. In rehabilitation, the individual meaning of chronic pain needs to be disclosed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä , Oulu , Finland .
authors.forename: Tapio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ojala
authors.forename: Arja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Häkkinen
authors.forename: Jaro
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Karppinen
authors.forename: Kirsi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sipilä
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suutama
authors.forename: Arja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Piirainen
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008132:Loneliness; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011788:Quality of Life; D012677:Sensation; D012944:Social Support
keywords: Chronic pain; psychosocial; quality of life