Loss-adjusting: Young People's Constructions of a Future Living with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

Abigail Jones, Line Caes, Christopher Eccleston, Melanie Noel, Tessa Rugg, Abbie Jordan*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Objectives: Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic pain condition that can present specific difficulties when occurring in adolescence. There is limited work exploring future narratives of healthy adolescents, and how these may differ for those who have chronic health conditions, but there is no research on the future narratives of adolescents who have CRPS. Materials and Methods: In this study, 50 adolescents (44 females, 5 males, 1 preferred not to say) aged 14 to 25 years (mean=19.8, SD=3.68), completed an online story completion task, with a further sample of 10 completing a follow-up telephone interview. Results: Story completion data were initially analyzed deductively based on the work of Morley and colleagues using hoped-for and feared-for future codes, revealing higher instances of hope (291 over 48 stories) than fear (99 over 27 stories). These codes were subsequently analyzed alongside the in-depth interview data using inductive thematic analysis, generating 2 themes that represent distinct, yet related, approaches of how adolescents incorporate CRPS into their future narratives: (1) the centrality of loss theme identifies the ways some adolescents described how CRPS brings loss, with narratives focused on how these adolescents imagine such losses continuing into the future, and (2) the adjusting to loss theme illustrates the ways other adolescents were able to imagine a future in which they were able to adjust to the losses which CRPS may bring. Discussion: CRPS may damage the future plans of adolescents. However, being or learning how to be flexible about these goals, may help them to build more positive future narratives.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)932-939
Number of pages8
JournalClinical Journal of Pain
Volume36
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the Pain Relief Foundation and Rare Diseases Foundation for supporting this work. The authors would also like to thank the adolescents who participated in the study and CRPS organisations who supported the study through recruitment advertisements.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • adolescence
  • chronic pain
  • complex regional pain syndrome
  • future
  • qualitative

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