Adapt, discover and engage: a qualitative interview study with patients living with chronic pain

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skjutar å & müllersdorf m (2010) Journal of Nursing and Healthcare of Chronic Illness2, 254–261 Adapt, discover and engage: a qualitative interview study with patients living with chronic painAim. This paper reports a study that aimed to advance the understanding of needs related to chronic pain management by describing these needs as they are experienced by people living with chronic pain.Methods. Data during 2008 were collected by interviews with ten Swedish adults living with musculoskeletal chronic pain and analysed using thematic content analysis.Findings. Three themes were found: Need to handle the painful body and the eager mind, need for transformation of self‐image, and need for affirmation through communion and enjoyment. The first theme describes how the body and mind are in conflict with each other and how participants constantly have to weigh the consequences of their actions. The second highlights the need to let go of a former self and to discover a new self. The third illustrates the participants’ needs for social engagement and for performance of valued occupations that provide hope and support.Conclusions. Findings show that participants experience internal needs, and they also have needs that can only be met through interaction with the surrounding context. Furthermore, findings show that some of the experienced needs can create inner conflict because they can be contradictory.Relevance to clinical practice. Findings from this study provide health care professionals with information about how patients with chronic pain experience needs. In turn, this can constitute a base that to enable evaluation of how closely the patients’ experiences of need correspond to the interventions that health care in general provides this group of patients. Patients should be supported to manage their possibly incompatible needs and to prioritise occupations that generate energy and satisfaction.