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Dealing with doubt how patients account for non-specific chronic low back pain

Dealing with doubt how patients account for non-specific chronic low back pain
Dealing with doubt how patients account for non-specific chronic low back pain
Objective: To explore the ways that persons with long standing chronic low back pain respond to the problem of medical doubt about the presence of organic pathology.

Method: Qualitative analysis of accounts provided by 12 persons attending a back pain rehabilitation clinic in NW England.

Results: Subjects rejected the notion that they were culpable for their pain. They were not culpable for the onset of their pain. They argued that despite their cooperation, no sensible explanation of their pain was forthcoming from health professionals. Finally, they asserted that medical scepticism had been damaging and dispiriting.

Conclusion: Patients dealt with clinical doubt by stressing their own expertise. They constituted their beliefs about the cause and trajectory of their pain and disability as accurate accounts of their disability. They resisted the suggestion that there might be psychological factors involved in their ill-health by locating culpability among clinicians, who were confused or uncertain about diagnosis and treatment.

non-specific pain, back pain, lay explanations, somatization
0022-3999
223-225
May, C.R.
17697f8d-98f6-40d3-9cc0-022f04009ae4
Rose, M.J.
bd6c0b8a-1e4e-4ce8-be63-6c0bb1cc59a4
Johnston, F.C.W.
f6c4fdce-7016-4692-9ce1-3e891a218fd7
May, C.R.
17697f8d-98f6-40d3-9cc0-022f04009ae4
Rose, M.J.
bd6c0b8a-1e4e-4ce8-be63-6c0bb1cc59a4
Johnston, F.C.W.
f6c4fdce-7016-4692-9ce1-3e891a218fd7

May, C.R., Rose, M.J. and Johnston, F.C.W. (2000) Dealing with doubt how patients account for non-specific chronic low back pain. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 49 (4), 223-225. (doi:10.1016/S0022-3999(00)00168-9).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Objective: To explore the ways that persons with long standing chronic low back pain respond to the problem of medical doubt about the presence of organic pathology.

Method: Qualitative analysis of accounts provided by 12 persons attending a back pain rehabilitation clinic in NW England.

Results: Subjects rejected the notion that they were culpable for their pain. They were not culpable for the onset of their pain. They argued that despite their cooperation, no sensible explanation of their pain was forthcoming from health professionals. Finally, they asserted that medical scepticism had been damaging and dispiriting.

Conclusion: Patients dealt with clinical doubt by stressing their own expertise. They constituted their beliefs about the cause and trajectory of their pain and disability as accurate accounts of their disability. They resisted the suggestion that there might be psychological factors involved in their ill-health by locating culpability among clinicians, who were confused or uncertain about diagnosis and treatment.

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More information

Published date: October 2000
Keywords: non-specific pain, back pain, lay explanations, somatization

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 163665
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/163665
ISSN: 0022-3999
PURE UUID: 1f5cde74-fe71-4a1a-b250-c84a4b96326e
ORCID for C.R. May: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0451-2690

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Date deposited: 15 Sep 2010 10:36
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:06

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Contributors

Author: C.R. May ORCID iD
Author: M.J. Rose
Author: F.C.W. Johnston

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