Objective: This study aimed to understand the impact of pain management programmes, focusing on the unwanted effects and their influence on patients' long-term use of self-management strategies.
Design: Qualitative study.
Setting: Specialist musculoskeletal hospital in North London, England.
Participants: Patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain that have completed a pain management programme.
Intervention: Multidisciplinary pain management programmes.
Main measures: Data were collected regarding patients' experiences and unwanted effects from the pain management programme using semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.
Results: Fourteen participant interviews were included in the analysis (median age 54 years, 12 females). Four themes were generated from the data: Benefits and burdens, Pain management programme and real life, Social support and Healthcare interventions. Unwanted effects included heightened anxiety related to negative interactions with peers, being in a new environment, worries about ability to cope with the programme, social anxiety from being in a group, the strain on families due to participants being away from home and a sense of abandonment at end of the programme. Burdens associated with implementing pain management strategies were identified, including the emotional burden of imposing their self-management on close family and competing demands with time and energy spent on self-management at the expense of work or home commitments.
Conclusions: Pain management programmes have an important role in helping patients to learn how to self-manage chronic pain. Their unwanted effects and the treatment burdens associated with long-term self-management may be an important consideration in improving the longevity of their beneficial effects.
Keywords: Chronic musculoskeletal pain; burden of care; pain management programme; self-management; unwanted effects.