Yoga for chronic pain management: a qualitative exploration
Yvonne Tul1, Anita Unruh, Bruce D Dick
1School of Health and Human Performance, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences
|November 10, 2010
Summary
Weekly yoga programs help chronic pain patients reframe their pain experience. Participants reported improved body awareness and a transformed relationship with pain, making it less bothersome.
Area of Science:
- Integrative medicine
- Pain management
- Mind-body therapies
Background:
- Chronic pain significantly impacts quality of life.
- Mind-body interventions like yoga are increasingly explored for pain management.
- Understanding patient perspectives is crucial for optimizing therapeutic approaches.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore patients' perceptions of their pain during a weekly yoga program.
- To investigate how yoga influences the lived experience of chronic pain.
Main Methods:
- Eight-week Hatha yoga program with weekly group sessions and at-home practice.
- Recruitment from a Multidisciplinary Pain Centre.
- Data collection through participant observation and in-depth interviews, followed by inductive analysis.
Main Results:
- Three emergent themes identified: renewed body awareness, transformed relationship with the body in pain, and acceptance.
- Participants reframed their experience of living with chronic pain.
- Pain became less bothersome, with improved control over daily life interference.
Conclusions:
- Yoga may facilitate beneficial changes in cognitions and behaviors towards pain.
- Patients reported reduced pain intensity or frequency through recognizing and responding to body signals.
- Yoga's benefits may stem from enabling patients to alter their relationship with chronic pain.
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