AIM: This paper is a report of a study exploring the impact of @entity9 on family, social and working relationships among @entity1 at a @entity158 clinic serving a large urban area. BACKGROUND: @entity9 is a particularly distressing type of @entity1118 which is extremely difficult to manage successfully. It produces a range of unpleasant symptoms and adversely affects @entity1 ' quality of life, but little is known about its personal impact. METHOD: A descriptive and exploratory approach was used and 10 @entity1 participated in three focus groups in 2005. Because of the low response rate of 20% from the initial sample, a second sample of 16 @entity1 was invited to participate. However, only one @entity1 responded and therefore it was not possible to convene an additional group. FINDINGS: The unpleasant and bizarre nature of @entity9 underpinned much of its impact in terms of respondents' difficulties in maintaining a range of relationships. For closer relationships, key difficulties centred on the reduction in quality and/or number of personal relationships. For more distant relationships and those with professionals, frustration at the invisibility of their @entity158 and their own failure to communicate symptoms and its consequences were central. CONCLUSION: More extensive work is needed to improve our understanding of how @entity9 is experienced, how it affects close and more distant kinds of relationships, and how healthcare professionals might best support @entity1 with persistent @entity9 to maintain personal and social relationships, and to communicate their @entity158 effectively.

The impact of XXXX on relationships.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['participants', 'patients', 'person', 'people'] @entity1118 :: ('MESH:D059350', 'Disease') :: ['chronic pain'] @entity9 :: ('MESH:D009437', 'Disease') :: ['neuropathic pain', 'Neuropathic pain'] @entity158 :: ('MESH:D010146', 'Disease') :: ['pain']
@entity9 :: (MESH:D009437,Disease) :: ['neuropathic pain']
