Journal of behavioral medicine
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There is growing recognition that persistent pain is a complex and multidimensional experience stemming from the interrelationship among biological, psychological, social, and spiritual factors. Chronic pain patients use a number of cognitive and behavioral strategies to cope with their pain, including religious/spiritual forms of coping, such as prayer, and seeking spiritual support to manage their pain. This article will explore the relationship between the experience of pain and religion/spirituality with the aim of understanding not only why some people rely on their faith to cope with pain, but also how religion/spirituality may impact the experience of pain and help or hinder the coping process. We will also identify future research priorities that may provide fruitful research in illuminating the relationship between religion/spirituality and pain.
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Historically, investigations of coping with chronic pain primarily have sought methods for gaining greater control over pain and pain-related distress. Recently, it has been suggested to expand the framework of coping so that control efforts are redirected from circumstances where they fail, and so that coping can more explicitly incorporate potentially more practical and flexible notions of acceptance. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the role of control-oriented and acceptance-oriented coping responses for patient functioning using a prospective design. ⋯ The factor representing more or less traditional pain management methods showed surprisingly limited relations with aspects of patient functioning. Analyses of concurrent change in coping and functioning highlighted a unique, apparently unhelpful, role of Pain Control. These results support the inclusion of contextual acceptance-related processes in current frameworks for understanding adjustment to chronic pain.