Interpersonal Issues Between Pain Physician and Patient: Strategies to Reduce Conflict

Abstract

This article analyzes scholarship on the interpersonal challenges that pain physicians face, with an emphasis on strategies to reduce conflicts within therapeutic relationships. Scholarship on the dilemmas pain physicians face suggests that 1) there are unique and perhaps unrecognized features of pain medicine that generate stress; 2) interpersonal conflict may contribute to stress; and 3) clinicians' biases may interfere with the doctor-patient relationship and with the best practice of pain medicine. Application of a framework based on clinicians' beliefs and Papadimos' reflections on justice and temperance may reduce such conflicts. The challenges of pain medicine may be complicated by the clinician's undisclosed attitudes regarding their roles and their perceptions of pain sufferers. A strategy for physicians to examine their beliefs within a supportive environment may aid physicians caring for people with chronic pain. Papadimos' reflections upon the virtues of justice and tolerance guide this analysis.