Questions that individuals with spinal cord injury have regarding their chronic pain: a qualitative study

To explore the questions that community-dwelling individuals with a traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) have regarding their chronic pain and to identify their preferred methods of acquiring this information.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 individuals experiencing SCI-related chronic pain. Qualitative content analysis was used to identify participants' questions about their pain and to organise them according to emergent themes.

Six themes pertaining to chronic pain were identified. These included: (1) cause, (2) communication, (3) expectation, (4) getting information, (5) management and (6) other's experience with chronic pain. Participants described using a variety of sources to obtain information about chronic pain including health care providers, other SCI-consumers and the Internet. Participants preferred to have chronic pain information available to them on an as needed basis.

Individuals with SCI have numerous questions about their chronic pain and use a variety of information sources to answer them. Many are dissatisfied with the level of knowledge that family physicians have about SCI-related chronic pain. This study provides valuable information from the consumer's perspective, which can be used to develop interventions to help health care professionals and consumers manage SCI-related chronic pain.