Perception of multimodal cognitive treatment for people with chronic widespread pain – Changing one's life plan

Abstract

Purpose. The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of chronic widespread pain patients' perception of a multimodal treatment with a cognitive approach.

Methods. A reformulated grounded theory study based on interviews with 16 participants in the programme was conducted at the end of a 6-month treatment period.

Results. The result describes a conceptual model of the informants' perception of the treatment. The core category ‘changing one's life plan’ comprised of three categories: ‘changing one's perception of life’, ‘depending on support’ and ‘managing one's life’. Changing one's perception of life could be deep and overwhelming ‘overall life changes’ or more superficial ‘life adjustments’. Support by health professionals and the patient group were of importance. At the end of the rehabilitation program managing one's life was perceived as either ‘reorientation’ or ‘stagnation’. The informants who experienced overall life changes achieved reorientation with support by others, while those who experienced life adjustments did not change their way of managing one's life to any great extent.

Conclusion. The core category changing one's life plan included the categories; changing one's perception of life, depending on support and managing one's life. Informants experiencing overall life changes were more likely to achieve reorientation than those who experienced life adjustments.

Keywords:

• Grounded theory
• chronic widespread pain
• rehabilitation
• cognitive approach

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.