4.3.2 An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of patients experiences of chronic lower back pain (CLBP) (294)

Sherrill Snelgrove, Lecturer, University of Wales Swansea, School of Health Science, Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom S.R.Snelgrove@swansea.ac.uk

Abstract:

Background:

Chronic lower back pain (CLBP) is known to be a highly prevalent and disabling condition in the UK and Europe (Breivik et al. 2006) CLBP challenges biomedical explanation as it is often resistant to treatment, the symptoms may become disproportionate to the original injury and there may be no evidence of structural damage. Extant literature describes CLBP as a sensory and perceptual experience that has led to a demand for biopsycho social models of care. With the increasing involvement of nurses in chronic pain management there is a need for farther understanding of patients with chronic pain. The reported study is the first of three studies following CLBP patients over three years.

Aim:

This study aims to extend knowledge in this area by focussing on the perceptions, understandings and coping strategies of patients with long standing CLBP.

Method:

Interpretative phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to o explore and interpret the interview data of 10 patients drawn form the waiting list of a chronic pain clinic. IPA is an ideographic methodology concerned with exploring in detail, a participant’s view of a subject (Smith 1994).

Results:

Two key themes are presented:

Living around the pain: participants spoke of a continual struggle to live with the pain characterised as ‘the master’, constant, intrusive, unpredictable, disabling and spoke of the moral adequacy of the pain
Coping: Participants spoke of medication as the main method of coping; a dialectic relationship was apparent as participants exposed a tension between their need for medication and their dislike of taking medication.

Conclusion and discussion:

The pain dominates the participant’s lives and they ‘live around their pain’. The discussion centres on the participants use of a predominantly biomedical model of illness that enmeshes them in the pain experience.

Source of Funding: N/A

Level of funding: N/A

Biography:

I am a lecturer in Social and Behavioural Sciences applied to Nursing at The School of Health Sciences Swansea University, UK. Chronic pain is a a main interest of mine in terms of teaching, research and nursing practice. I am involved in research projects concerned with investigating psychological responses to chronic pain and responses to treatments. The paper I am presenting is based upon data from my PhD work that was completed in 2007 and due to be submitted in 2008.