Psychological Empowerment Strategies in Chronic Pain Management: A grounded Theory Study

With respect to the rising trend of chronic pain and needing for pay attention to the psychological dimensions of chronic pain, identifying practical strategies for psychological empowerment in chronic pain management process is high importance. Hence, the current study aimed to explore the   psychological empowerment strategies in chronic pain management from health care providers and patients’ viewpoint.

The grounded theory approach was applied in this qualitative study.  Semi-structured interviews and observation of participants as the main methods for data collection was used. 15 members of the health care providers had a greater relationship with the psychotic dimensions of chronic pain management and 6 patient with chronic pain participated with purposive and theoretical sampling methods. Sampling was continued until data saturation and data analysis was performed concurrently with data gathering based on Corbin and Strauss’s proposed method. Data validity was confirmed via Lincoln and Gubba’s approach. 

 The theme of “facing pain” was identified as the main approach in psychological empowerment, which consisted of two subthemes of pain experience and resilience. In this regard, the subthemes of pain experience were obtained from the subcategories of coping strategies and openness to pain. The two subcategories of ambiguity tolerance and self-efficacy also created the resilience sub theme. Interactions between experiencing pain and resilience can lead to facing pain. 

Identyfieng and using of applicable and appropriate strategies such as facing pain for psychological empowerment can be improve chronic pain management and also reduce the challenges of health care providers, client and family in chronic pain management.