PAIN INFLUENCE BEHAVIOUR

PAIN INFLUENCE BEHAVIOUR

Introduction

Pain may be defined as a bio psychosocial phenomenon experienced by human beings at different intervals during their lives. Shakhshir, P. (2008). The patients rely these days on the health care professionals to control and manage pain. It is an experience which is personal. This evidence of presence of this phenomenon may be seen through behaviour, which in this case is both expressive and functional.

Discussion

When discussing pain, there are many facts that can be stated. A study of an Australian community sample reported that 18% of th population had some degrees of chronic pain. Over 5% reported sufficient pain to interfere 'extremely' with activity. Currowet al. (2010). Blyth et al. (2003), a study in Australia again reported the most frequent causes of pain which include, Injury (38 percent, sports injury (13 percent ) and health problems. (29 percent). Nearly 80 per cent of those who reported having chronic pain had consulted a doctor about it in the six months before the survey. A research on Danish children aged between 15 and 16 years revealed that more than half of them reported pain or discomfort in their lower back; a quarter experienced a decreased function as a consequence of this pain.

There are three functions of pain. the first function is primary (intrapersonal) gain is the expressions of pain results in the cessation or reduction of an aversive consequence for example someone taking over a household chore that causes pain, someone manipulating one's bones. (Bokan et al. 1981). Secondary (interpersonal) gain is when pain behaviour results in a positive outcome, such as expressions of sympathy or care. The tertiary gain is feelings of pleasure or satisfaction that someone other than the individual in pain may experience when they help them.

As explained in the book Management of patients with chronic pain, there are five D's of pain identified by (Brena and Chapman, 1983). These include dramatisation of complaints, disuse through inactivity, drug misuse as a result of over-medication in response to pain behaviour, dependency on others due to learned helplessness and impaired use of personal coping skills, disability due to inactivity.

The psychological factors to pain are Mood, attention and Beliefs. Mood is the anxiety and depression. It reduces the pain tolerance and increase the reporting of pain.

Mood

In their research Fisher and Johnston (1996), gave patients with lower back pain mood induction procedure. Then they asked either about upsetting aspects of their condition or more positive aspects of their condition and how they were coping with it. The Participants were given a plastic bag into which were placed as many packets of rice as they felt able to tolerate and then held the bag until it felt uncomfortable. Participants who reported the upsetting issues performed less well. Those whose mood was improved were able to hold the same weights for a longer period than baseline.

Magni et al. (1994) conducted more than eight years of study, of more than 2000 ...