Psychiological Perspective On Pain

Question 1

What is pain?

Answer 1

An unpleasant sensor and emotional experience associated with or resembling that associated with actual or potential tissue damage

Question 2

What is pain influenced by?

Answer 2

Personal experience

Varying degrees of biological, psychological and social factors

Pain and nociception are different phenomena as pain doesn’t require actual damage
Pain cannot be inferred solely from activity in sensory neurons
Pain is not proportional to damage

Pain is a decision made by our brain- protection

Question 3

Understanding pain in the moment

Question 4

Understanding pain longer term

Question 5

Acute pain

Answer 5

A warning – (generally) helpful and protects you from further physical damage

Can usually be explained and treated
E.g. toothache, sprained ankle, broken bone

Others tend to understand and offer sympathy

Temporary - you can carry on as normal afterwards

Question 6

Chronic pain

Answer 6

Serves no useful warning purpose

Medical investigations may not provide a diagnosis or an explanation

Treatment is aimed at relieving pain, not curing it

Others might not understand

Ongoing and often has a negative and widespread effect on life

Question 7

Pain and activity- 2 common patterns

Answer 7

The ‘take it easy trap’

Activity cycling – ‘boom and bust’

Question 8

Take it easy trap- avoidance

Answer 8

Advice to rest

Fears and concerns of doing more harm/injury and thought that reducing activity helps to reduce pain

Question 9

Active cycling- boom and bust

Answer 9

Pacing

Prioritising

Planning

Question 10

Pacing

Answer 10

Limiting the time spent on an activity to prevent marked increases in pain, and keeping to a regular amount of activity to prevent the problems of too much rest

Planning activity rather than just doing things according to how you feel

Taking frequent short breaks, breaking tasks or activities down to smaller tasks and changing position regularly

Question 11

Planning

Answer 11

Involves thinking about when and how activities are going to be done

Make sure difficult activities are spread out

Take regular breaks

Balance essential and non essential activities

Question 12

Prioritising

Answer 12

Means making a noise about what is done

Balance what needs to be be done with hats pleasurable

Question 13

Relaxation and pain

Answer 13

Natural reaction for muscles to tense in anticipation of pain and when pain is experienced

Muscle tension can in turn make the experience of pain worse

Question 14

Effects of muscle tension

Answer 14

Frequent and prolonged muscle tension can:

cause aches, discomfort and tiredness

cause simple movements, e.g. walking or getting out of a chair, to become stiff and slow

become normal - maybe physically tense without being aware of it

Question 15

Relaxation can

Answer 15

Be beneficial to a patients general health

Help to change their experience of pain

Help to manage pain and feel more in control

Be a useful means of distraction

Be helpful in dealing with stress

Question 16

Distraction

Answer 16

Pain is a powerful signal which gets your attention, but pain can be ignored

Awareness of pain is affected by mental activity

Distraction is a very valuable and practical approach to managing pain

Question 17

Managing flare ups

Answer 17

A flare up refers to an increase in a patients usual pain and not to new pain sensations

Levels of pain will vary over time