Chinese Culture And Pain Perception

“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.,

Each individual’s culturally based response to pain is divided into two categories: stoic and emotive (Marcia, 2011). Patients with stoic character response to pain in a less expressive way. They are more tending to bear with the pain and withdraw socially. On the other hand, emotive patients’ response to pain tends to be more verbalizing their expressions of pain. They like to have people around them and also react to their pain as well as to validate their discomfort (Marcia, 2011). A broad generalization is that patients from Hispanic (Mr.HR is Hispanic background), Mediterranean and Middle Eastern background are more likely to be emotional and expressive about their pain. Other groups, patients from Asian, Scandinavian and Northern European cultures are considered to be more stoic (Marcia, 2011). As a provider, we can use cultural factors to understand the patient’s reaction to pain, but we have to keep in mind that we cannot expect that the same behaviors or beliefs apply to everyone in the same culture (Marcia,

Adequate pain assessment is essential for measuring the efficacy of treatment in clinical practice, provide patient with target pain treatment, and avoid the high number of non-responders.15 Clinically, valuable pain assessment would associate certain signs and symptoms that comprise the pain phenotype with underlying mechanisms.15 Methods such as quantitative sensory testing, functional imaging, skin biopsies and genetic screening are assessment tools provide valuable information regarding the neurobiology of pain.15 However, these tools are expensive, require technical expertise and not suitable for routine assessment of a patient’s pain.15 Therefore, the purpose of this study is to establish biopsychosocial pain profiling of multiethnic

The etiology of chronic pain is complex and may be due to a number of different factors. Current therapeutics often fail to produce adequate analgesia for moderate-to-severe pain

Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience, and biomedical model which relates the intensity of pain to the severity of injury. The biopsychosocial model, views illness as a 'dynamic and reciprocal interaction between biologic, psychological and sociocultural variables that shape the person's responses to pain' (Turk and Flor, 1999). The biomedical model embraces reductionism this disease is caused by biological/somatic variables and believes the only effective treatment for pain is medical approaches. The biopsychosocial model understands that pain can be a dynamic entity that can changes over time. Biopsychosocial is affected by a person's internal and external environment. The two models allow the biomedical model significant medical advances; the biopsychosocial model has offered physiotherapy a wider spectrum of tools to help treat chronic pain patients.

Pain which is referred to as the fifth vital sign is one of the most common reasons why patients seek care. “It can occur at any time, to anyone. Pain can profoundly affect quality of life, interactions with family and friends, sense of well-being and self-esteem, and financial resources” (Jensen,

Pain is an obvious consequence of injuries and surgery, but it is also a common symptom of ill health. A complex experience, with many variables that can influence the patient experience and interpretation. The various factors include age, gender, culture influences, social class, personality and emotional factors such as anxiety, fear and depression which do not necessarily increase the patient’s pain experience, but will affect their reaction to it.

There are a variety of pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches in managing chronic pain. These are broken down to six major categories; they are pharmacological, interventional, neuromodulation, physical medicine, behavioral medicine and surgical approaches (1). A coordinated multidisciplinary team approach and detailed patient's history is essential in tailoring a patient-specific treatment plan that will meet treatment goals. A number of randomized systematic reviews found strong evidence that multidisciplinary approach including bio-psychosocial rehabilitation improves functional status when compared with non-multidisciplinary care (2,3). Here, we will focus our discussion on some of the advantages and disadvantages of medical management versus interventional management of chronic pain.

In order to fully answer this question, it is important to understand the definition of pain. 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” (Mersky and Bogduk ed 1994). The physiological function of the pain sensory system is protective in nature, to shield the body from actual or potential tissue damage. Pathological pain, on the other hand, is described as “spontaneous pain, hyperalgesia and allodynia, that persist for years or decades after all possible tissue healing has occurred” (Coderre et al 1993).

Pain is the last vital sign but it important because it reveals a lot about a person’s health. It not only affects a person’s physical health but their mental health as well. Things like mood, activity, sleep, hygiene, appetite, and the ability to focus and concentrate. Experiencing pain varies between everyone because what may be excruciating to someone may seem moderate to the other. Doctors may ask questions like Where is the pain? What kind of pain is it: sharp, dull, aching, throbbing, shooting burning, etc.? When did it start? What makes it worse? What helps ease it?, and How does it affect your life?

In the western world there are more than a few ways to re leave pain. Some of us just ignore it and others might take some form of medication, however there is an ancient Chinese form of pain relief that is used all around the world known as acupuncture. Although the idea of acupuncture doesn't sound very comfortable, it has been proven to help with all sorts of body pain.

Pain is something that connects all of us. From birth to death we can identify with each other the idea and arguably the perception of it. We all know we experience it, but what is more important is how we all perceive it. It is known that there are people out there with a ‘high’ pain tolerance and there are also ones out there with a ‘low’ pain tolerance, but what is different between them? We also know that pain is an objective response to certain stimuli, there are neurons that sense and feel pain and there are nerve impulses that send these “painful” messages to the brain. What we don’t know is where the pain

Yvonne, your post was really interesting because who would have known depending on the culture a person comes from, they tolerate pain differently. I find it interesting that Buddhist’s usually tolerate pain in a calm and collective way rather than the cultures you listed. I think people tolerate pain differently because they feel as if God is making them feel this pain in order for a lesson to be learned or a thanking for a surgery that was done. Religion definitely plays apart in managing pain.

The word pain can be used in a variety of context to mean a variety of things. You may feel emotional or physical pain. While treatment of emotional pain is determined by the person’s emotional stability, physical pain may require different treatment options that may include the consumption of painkillers and the use of pain control substances amongst other treatment options. The severity of the pain you are feeling will determine the course of treatment taken; however, pain management may be an option you cannot avoid.