• Paula R Mahon and Deirdre Reynolds.
• ChildKind Project, BC Children's Hospital An agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver, Canada; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Electronic address: pmahon@cw.bc.ca.
• Pain Manag Nurs. 2024 Feb 1; 25 (1): 192619-26.

BackgroundPrimary chronic pain (PCP), a relatively new classification, characterizes pain that is not a secondary response to an underlying primary condition such as trauma or cancer. This study explored the lived experience of adolescents with a diagnosis of PCP.MethodA qualitative methodology, Interpretative Description (ID), was used to guide our study. ID uses a constructivist approach and allows for clinician experience to guide a theoretical scaffold of inquiry, which can be refined as the data collection progresses. We interviewed fifteen adolescents (n = 15) living with PCP.ResultsAll participants in this sample reported struggling with diagnostic uncertainty, depression, and anxiety. Adding to their distress was the fact that our participants perceived that health care professionals did not believe them when they described their pain and its intensity.ConclusionsWhile significant research is being conducted on PCP, participants believe there is a lack of knowledge about PCP as a diagnosis and thus there are limited resources and a lack of empathy and understanding for these adolescents.Copyright © 2023 American Society for Pain Management Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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