Service users' and occupational therapists' beliefs about effective treatments for chronic pain: a meeting of the minds or the great divide?

PURPOSE

Research supports that beliefs about chronic pain and its treatment are individually constructed. It also suggests that lack of agreement between people with pain and treatment providers may contribute to negative treatment outcomes. The aim of this study is to identify patterns of congruence that exist between service users and occupational therapists in relation to beliefs about which treatments for chronic pain are important.

METHOD

These findings are extracted from a wider research study exploring congruence between service providers from a range of professional groups and service users regarding their endorsement of treatments for chronic pain. The survey findings reported here asked occupational therapists and service users their opinion about whether specific treatment components are important for people with chronic pain. The survey also included Skevington's Beliefs About Pain Control Questionnaire (BPCQ) which measured beliefs in the internal or personal control of pain, beliefs that powerful others (doctors) control pain and beliefs that pain is controlled by chance events.

RESULTS

There were few treatment components that 100% of the respondents agreed were important. Occupational therapists' and service users' responses demonstrated statistically significant differences in endorsement of treatments, BPCQ scores and the relationship between BPCQ scores and treatment endorsements.

CONCLUSIONS

Occupational Therapists and service users are distinctly heterogeneous groups in regards to what treatments they believe are important for chronic pain. It is possible that the therapeutic relationship and the outcome of available treatments are negatively affected as a consequence of disagreement about what treatments are important.