Experiência da dor crônica: compreendendo as repercussões na participação de trabalhadores

Abstract

The pain is one of the greatest health problems nowadays, in special when approached under the aspects of human agony, which is caused by painful experiences. Pain is considered chronic when it persists for over three months and its intensity does not match one specific injury. There are some individual differences on the perception of pain and on the way that each person reacts to his/her pain experience. The presence of chronic conditions, such as pain, has contributed to a less diversified participation of workers, focused on domestic activities, involving poor social relations, and including a smaller number of recreational activities. Work is an area within the construct of participation that has the most negative impact from chronic pain. Thereby, the objective of this study is to understand the effects of chronic pain on workers participation, focusing on how they live their lives dealing with the restrictions imposed by pain. Ten workers with chronic pain participated in this study. The study was conducted with a qualitative approach and the technique used for the data collection was a semi-structured interview model. The analyses of the interviews revealed that chronic pain has consequences on the participation of workers, leading to work restrictions, loss of performed roles and the suffering related to changes in workers status. The social relations tend to be constrained only to the family and workers showed an increasing isolation from other social groups. The reconstruction of participants lives was a counter point to the identified biographical rupture. The narratives showed strategies taken by the workers to deal with pain, attempts to reorganization of their daily activities and formulating of new plans for the future. It is expected that the researchers and clinical staff could use an approach that seek a broader perspective on what is subjective in the lives of people with chronic pain, in order to and capture the meanings about pain, the rupture that occurs on workers life history and their responses to the imposed reconstruction.