M.A. / Spinal cord trauma resulting in paraplegia or quadriplegia is one of the most devastating injuries. A frequent complication of spinal cord injury is intractible pain. It compounds a host of personal and social consequences: disruption of personal roles, dysfunctional marital and family relationships, unemployment, financial hardship, depression, anxiety, lowered self-esteem and hopelessness. There is an abundance of research on pain in general, but a dearth of literature on chronic pain in the spinal cord injured population - especially in the South African context. This study examined the psychosocial impact of pain on spinal cord injured patients in a hospital setting. Specifically, it addressed six core research questions, concerned with the physiological components of pain, and the social, affective and rehabilitation consequences of pain for spinal cord injured patients. The effects of etiology and level of lesion, age, gender and culture on the general pain experience were investigated. The purpose of this study was to accurately describe the phenomenon of pain as experienced by spinal cord injured (SCI) patients. The evidence showed that pain was a serious problem for SCI patients. A variety of physical and social modifiers of the pain experience were identified, as were several important temporal features of pain. SCI patients reported high frequencies of social, affective (depression, low selfesteem, suicidal responses and partner relationship problems), and rehabilitation consequences. The etiology of spinal cord injury was found to be related to pain intensity, while the level of the lesion was not associated with pain intensity or frequency. Some effect was found for age, however, gender did not contribute to the variance of any of the dependent variables. The culture of SCI patients plays an important role in both pain perception and the psychosocial and rehabilitation consequences of chronic pain. The results suggest that pain in SCI patients, as in other pain populations, needs to be recognized as a complex, multidimensional phenomena. Successful treatment requires an understanding of the SCI patient's emotional and psychological, as well as his physical requirements. The role of pain assessment is fundamental to any pain management programme.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:3138 |
| Date | 24 August 2012 |
| Creators | Colley, Jennifer Margaret |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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