IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v63y2006i6p1573-1585.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is chronic widespread pain biographically disruptive?

Author

Listed:
  • Richardson, Jane C.
  • Ong, Bie Nio
  • Sim, Julius

Abstract

This article draws on findings from a study of eight people (aged 40-60) with chronic widespread pain and their families, living in the West Midlands area of the UK. Data were generated through a series of in-depth interviews, based on a lifegrid and on participants' diaries. We explore the experience of chronic widespread pain in the context of sufferers' biographies, examining how people attempt to account for and give meaning to their pain onset and development and how they remake identity following disruption to their lives. We use these accounts to consider whether chronic widespread pain is biographically disruptive, or whether any of the alternative notions better describe the experience. We conclude that the consideration of context in biographical disruption should extend to lifestage and perceived life expectancy.

Suggested Citation

  • Richardson, Jane C. & Ong, Bie Nio & Sim, Julius, 2006. "Is chronic widespread pain biographically disruptive?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1573-1585, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:6:p:1573-1585
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(06)00183-3
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johansson, Eva E. & Hamberg, Katarina & Westman, Göran & Lindgren, Gerd, 1999. "The meanings of pain: an exploration of women's descriptions of symptoms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(12), pages 1791-1802, June.
    2. Lillrank, Annika, 2003. "Back pain and the resolution of diagnostic uncertainty in illness narratives," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(6), pages 1045-1054, September.
    3. Glenton, Claire, 2003. "Chronic back pain sufferers--striving for the sick role," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(11), pages 2243-2252, December.
    4. Riessman, Catherine Kohler, 1990. "Strategic uses of narrative in the presentation of self and illness: A research note," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 1195-1200, January.
    5. Borkan, Jeffrey & Reis, Shmuel & Hermoni, Doron & Biderman, Aya, 1995. "Talking about the pain: A patient-centered study of low back pain in primary care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 977-988, April.
    6. Boeije, Hennie R. & Duijnstee, Mia S. H. & Grypdonck, Mieke H. F. & Pool, Aart, 2002. "Encountering the downward phase: biographical work in people with multiple sclerosis living at home," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(6), pages 881-893, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Engman, Athena, 2019. "Embodiment and the foundation of biographical disruption," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 120-127.
    2. Philip Kinghorn & Angela Robinson & Richard Smith, 2015. "Developing a Capability-Based Questionnaire for Assessing Well-Being in Patients with Chronic Pain," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(3), pages 897-916, February.
    3. Emmanuel F. Koku, 2024. "The Effect of Stigma and Social Networks on Role Expectations among African Immigrants Living with HIV," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(6), pages 1-16, June.
    4. Dassieu, Lise & Kaboré, Jean-Luc & Choinière, Manon & Arruda, Nelson & Roy, Élise, 2020. "Painful lives: Chronic pain experience among people who use illicit drugs in Montreal (Canada)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    5. Bell, Sarah L. & Tyrrell, Jessica & Phoenix, Cassandra, 2016. "Ménière's disease and biographical disruption: Where family transitions collide," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 177-185.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Melander, Stina, 2023. "Different logics of pain: the gendered dimension of chronic pain in a relational setting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    2. Corbett, Mandy & Foster, Nadine E. & Ong, Bie Nio, 2007. "Living with low back pain--Stories of hope and despair," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(8), pages 1584-1594, October.
    3. Paul Atkinson, 2009. "Illness Narratives Revisited: The Failure of Narrative Reductionism," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 14(5), pages 196-205, November.
    4. Dumit, Joseph, 2006. "Illnesses you have to fight to get: Facts as forces in uncertain, emergent illnesses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 577-590, February.
    5. Koekkoek, B. & Hutschemaekers, G. & van Meijel, B. & Schene, A., 2011. "How do patients come to be seen as 'difficult'?: A mixed-methods study in community mental health care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(4), pages 504-512, February.
    6. Sim, Julius & Madden, Sue, 2008. "Illness experience in fibromyalgia syndrome: A metasynthesis of qualitative studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 57-67, July.
    7. Pilkington, Karen & Ridge, Damien T. & Igwesi-Chidobe, Chinonso N. & Chew-Graham, Carolyn A. & Little, Paul & Babatunde, Opeyemi & Corp, Nadia & McDermott, Clare & Cheshire, Anna, 2020. "A relational analysis of an invisible illness: A meta-ethnography of people with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) and their support needs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    8. Phillips, Tarryn, 2012. "Repressive authenticity in the quest for legitimacy: Surveillance and the contested illness lawsuit," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(10), pages 1762-1768.
    9. Higgins, Angela & Porter, Sam & O'Halloran, Peter, 2014. "General practitioners' management of the long-term sick role," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 52-60.
    10. Bloeser, Katharine & McCarron, Kelly K. & Merker, Vanessa L. & Hyde, Justeen & Bolton, Rendelle E. & Anastasides, Nicole & Petrakis, Beth Ann & Helmer, Drew A. & Santos, Susan & Litke, David & Pigeon,, 2021. "“Because the country, it seems though, has turned their back on me”: Experiences of institutional betrayal among veterans living with Gulf War Illness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    11. Næss, Anders & Fjær, Eivind Grip & Vabø, Mia, 2016. "The assisted presentations of self in nursing home life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 153-159.
    12. Inge M Brokerhof & Jan Fekke Ybema & P Matthijs Bal, 2020. "Illness narratives and chronic patients’ sustainable employability: The impact of positive work stories," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-17, February.
    13. Madden, Sue & Sim, Julius, 2006. "Creating meaning in fibromyalgia syndrome," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(11), pages 2962-2973, December.
    14. Nelson, Mia & Ogden, Jane, 2008. "An exploration of food intolerance in the primary care setting: The general practitioner's experience," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 1038-1045, September.
    15. Michela Barisone & Erica Busca & Erika Bassi & Enrico De Luca & Emanuele Profenna & Barbara Suardi & Alberto Dal Molin, 2023. "The Family and Community Nurses Cultural Model in the Times of the COVID Outbreak: A Focused Ethnographic Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-19, January.
    16. Nakata, Cheryl & Sharp, Lisa K. & Spanjol, Jelena & Cui, Anna Shaojie & Izberk-Bilgin, Elif & Crawford, Stephanie Y. & Xiao, Yazhen, 2021. "Narrative arcs and shaping influences in long-term medication adherence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    17. Tan, Catherine D., 2018. "“I'm a normal autistic person, not an abnormal neurotypical”: Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis as biographical illumination," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 161-167.
    18. Rhodes, Tim & Watts, Louise & Davies, Sarah & Martin, Anthea & Smith, Josie & Clark, David & Craine, Noel & Lyons, Marion, 2007. "Risk, shame and the public injector: A qualitative study of drug injecting in South Wales," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 572-585, August.
    19. O'Cathain, Alicia & Goode, Jackie & Luff, Donna & Strangleman, Tim & Hanlon, Gerard & Greatbatch, David, 2005. "Does NHS Direct empower patients?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(8), pages 1761-1771, October.
    20. Radley, Alan & Mayberry, John & Pearce, Melanie, 2008. "Time, space and opportunity in the outpatient consultation: 'The doctor's story'," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(7), pages 1484-1496, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:6:p:1573-1585. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.