Spirituality and health care. The perspective of patients with chronic pain

Background. Chronic pain affects all aspects of human life, which raises spiritual questions that should be included within the framework of multimodal care. Objectives. We investigated the perspective of patients with chronic pain around spiritual concerns and their potential integration into care. Materials and methods. We conducted five focus group interviews and two small group interviews. In total, 42 patients with chronic pain in outpatient or inpatient pain care at the time of the study participated. The interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed. Results. Three themes emerged: (1) Chronic pain permeates the entity of a person's existence. (2) Spiritual resources are potentially supportive in living with chronic pain. (3) Patients appreciate the opportunity to engage with health care professionals in a dialog that encompasses spiritual concerns. For participants, these concerns have considerable relevance. In many cases participants associated them with religious convictions, but not exclusively. They often related feeling that their pain experience was dismissed. Conclusion. Finding strategies for effectively dealing with chronic pain represents a turning point in life. Open discussion with health care professionals that allow for spiritual issues facilitates this process.