Active psychosocial therapies for chronic postsurgical pain have shown promise. Preoperatively disturbed (elevated depressed symptoms, anxious symptoms, or pain catastrophizing) and non-distressed participants in the psychologically-based Perioperative Pain Self-management (PePS) intervention were described in the study. Researchers conducted a qualitative research project that aimed to gather participants’ opinions and feedback on the PePS intervention. Interviews were semi-structured, done over the phone, audio-recorded, transcribed, and quality-audited. The qualitative differences between what preoperatively distressed and non-distressed participants felt most and least helpful about the intervention were investigated using coded interviews and a quotation matrix. About 21 people took part in the interviews, with seven classified as distressed. The most beneficial aspect of the session, according to distressed participants, was learning how to reframe their experience. Not distressed participants focused on the benefits of developing relaxation skills to handle postsurgical pain. Participants, both troubled and non-distressed, emphasized the importance of the social support aspects of PePS and described goal-setting as difficult. Pain management solutions supplied by PePS were favored differently by distressed and non-distressed participants. The majority of participants stressed the value of PePS’ social assistance.

Source:www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1524904221001582

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