Causes And Treatment Of Chronic Illness

It can be construed as having two components: a lack of pleasurable engagement and a socially painful disconnection, with the lack of pleasurable engagement being more closely tied to negative outcomes like depression and social impairment (Joiner, Lewinsohn, & Seeley, 2002). In a study of 200 breast cancer survivors, lonelier participants experienced significantly more pain, depression, and fatigue than less lonely participants (Jaremka et al., 2003). Lonelier participants also reported lower pain tolerance than non-lonely participants in laboratory pain studies (Oishi et al., 2012). Within people, morning loneliness significantly predicted end of day pain in patients with fibromyalgia (Wolf, Davis, Yeung, & Tennen, 2015). Taken together, these findings suggest that loneliness predicts worse pain outcomes, both within and between

When someone is suffering or living with a chronic illness it can have a huge impact on them psychologically and socially. Chronic Illness is a condition that is prolonged in duration, usually more than 3 months and is rarely cured (DoH, 2012). Having to cope with a chronic condition might lead to life changes, such as dependency on others, loss of income, which can cause feelings of loss and reduced self-esteem. They can also report feelings of social rejection, poor healthcare and workplace termination due to their presenting condition (Earnshaw, Quinn, & Park, 2011).

This paper will define the term pain and how it pertains to the comfort theory. Next, there will be discussion from relevant literature in regards to pain. Its defining attributes will be

Many people throughout the United States (US) have some form of chronic disease. Chronic diseases are conditions that are not passed from person to person (noncommunicable), have a long duration, are commonly slow in progression, and generally have no cure (World Health Organization (WHO), n.d.b). Currently, chronic diseases are the leading cause of disability and death in the US and about half of all adults have at least one chronic illness (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2016b). This means that nearly every person in the US will be affected by chronic conditions whether it be personally or through loved ones having these diseases. The most prevalent types of chronic

“Pain is a universal condition. At some time, each person will experience pain from illness or injury. Pain isn 't only a physical experience; it also has an emotional component that may trigger behaviors that play an important role in how a patient 's pain is perceived by others (Yvonne, 2009)”. Pain can create a great impact on person’s life. In this paper, I will focus on the effects of Chinese culture on pain perception, responses, and management as well as how their ethnic differences and ethnic background helps them to

According to The World Health Organisation (1999), defined pain as an unpleasant sensory or emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage. Pain is traditionally described as acute or chronic pain. The prevalence of chronic pain (CP) is higher than of acute of pain, as it affects 7.8 million people of all ages in the UK (Chronic Pain Policy Coalition., 2006). The current leading cause of mortality that is accounting for 60% of all deaths is due to chronic diseases and is also a problem as causes an increasing burden on the health care service (World Health Organisation., 2007). CP can affect a person’s quality of life if managed poorly, statistics shows that 25% of people lose their job and 22% leads to depression. (Chronic Pain Policy Coalition.,

Social support was taken as the perception and actuality that one is cared for, has assistance available from other people (spouse, relatives and friends) and that one is part of a supportive social network (Odongo et al, 2015). To demonstrate, my grandmother was able to have a lot of support from the family in which this allowed her to detect the cancer earlier due to the awareness of breast cancer in our family history. Breast cancer runs in my family, in every generation, and the remission of my grandmother’s cancer has led everyone to help out and understand the toll that the cancer was taking on her body. This allowed the family to learn more and support her in what decision she has made in taking the steps of recovery. Several studies have also described how the patient’s concealment of symptoms may influence, delay of medical help-seeking, while discussing them with friends and family can facilitate the decision to seek medical advice (Odongo et al, 2015).

In some cases, pain management is provided by an interdisciplinary team which may include physician, psychology, physical and occupational therapy, pharmacy, social work, massage therapy, acupuncture, and nurses (Mackey, 2015). In interdisciplinary approach, therefore, psychological and physical therapies are integrated in the pain management regime. Because of the increasing accept¬ability of nonpharmacological pain management therapies, there is a need evaluate their effectiveness (Jibb et el, 2015). Nurses have a unique opportunity to enhance the use of these therapies because of their role in patient care coordination and they are also in direct contact with patients more than other disciplines (Alaloul et el, 2015).

Social pain is experienced after an aversive social interaction, for example, rejection or exclusion. Psychological pain is experienced as emotions following the loss of reward. The focus of this study will be pain tolerance and threshold of physical pain, however, psychological and social pain are both relevant as they are both experienced in athletics and in victims of abuse.

Chronic pain in older adults is defined as ‘‘an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage, for persons who are either aged (65 to 79 years old) or very aged (80 and over) and who have had pain for greater than 3 months’’ (Lynch, 2000, p.270). The consequences of chronic pain may also be related to impaired activities of daily living (ADLs), physical disability, accidents, gait abnormalities, polypharmacy, and cognitive decline in older adults (Mantyselka et al., 2001; Kaye et al., 2010; Shega et al., 2010). Therefore, chronic pain has negative affects on older adults, their families, and social relationships.

Evidence proves that increasing the patient’s social support decreases mortality rates among cancer patients (Yildirim & Kocabiyik, 2010). If further investigation was conducted and these caring aspects were undertaken in Vivian’s care, she may have lived a more comfortable life, due to support. Vivian’s quality of life would have been lifted and improved dramatically. Having a support network is the key to successful care. According to (Keith Kam, et al., 2010), it is proposed that the leading barriers as to why patients don’t receive the support they require is due to the lack of guidance and recommendations and also lacked in referrals to other healthcare professionals. A significant amount of healthcare workers regarded support services for cancer patients as very effective (Keith Kam, et al., 2010). Although these professionals depict support being a major part of care, majority of them didn’t refer patients on to actually benefit from the care (Keith Kam, et al., 2010). According to (Keith Kam, et al., 2010), one of the first stages to sufficient care should be that the patient is directed to a local support services to cancer to help the deal with the complications of support issues. If these simple caring procedures were followed, the care and quality of life for the patient would have been different as it would have improved from these nursing attributes. Patients that gain support prove to have a better control over their cancer and prove a lot more confident (Arnott, et al.,

Experiment one examines whether enduring painful experiences as a group can create an intimate environment causing for greater bonding then a non-painful social experience. There was two different tasks, first the subjects had to submerge their hands in iced-water and the other Participants in the non-pain condition completed the same task with room-temperature water for a fixed duration of 90 seconds. In both conditions, participants had to sort out metal-balls within the water. The second task involved making the group in the pain condition to hold an upright squat for as long as possible, and the non-pain condition was to stand on one leg (could change legs, if felt strain) for only sixty seconds. ANOVA (analysis of variance) revealed a slight increase in

J., Courtens, A. M., Zwakhalen, S. G., van Kleef, M., & de Witte, L. P. (2015).

Chronic Pain is an interesting problem in society today. The exact cause of Chronic Pain is not the same in every patient. In fact most patients present with different symptoms and associated pathologies, such as the strong link with depression. Treatment of Chronic Pain is often performed a single practitioner whether that be a Medical Doctor, Chiropractor, Nutritionist, or an alternative health care professional. Chronic Pain is often extremely complex, because of this treatment needs to be multidimensional. Effective care of Chronic Pain requires the collective cooperation of health care professionals

The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (1979). Pain is actually the culprit behind warranting a visit to a physician office for many people (Besson, 1999). Notoriously unpleasant, pain could also pose a threat as both a psychological and economic burden (Phillips, 2006). Sometimes pain does happen without any damage of tissue or any likely diseased state. The reasons for such pain are poorly understood and the term used to describe such type of pain is “psychogenic pain”. Also, the loss of productivity and daily activity due to pain is also significant. Pain engulfs a trillion dollars of GDP for lost work time and disability payments (Melnikova, 2010). Untreated pain not only impacts a person suffering from pain but also impacts their whole family. A person’s quality of life is negatively impacted by pain and it diminishes their ability to concentrate, work, exercise, socialize, perform daily routines, and sleep. All of these negative impacts ultimately lead to much more severe behavioral effects such as depression, aggression, mood alterations, isolation, and loss of self-esteem, which pose a great threat to human society.