Pain Resilience and Spiritual Health in Low Back Pain

In the management of chronic pain, it is very important to reaffirm the patient's self-worth and ability through psychological support and spiritual care. The role of spiritual consultant is to provide spiritual consultation and spiritual care, so that the medical team can truly implement a whole-person care of the patient including the body, mind, and family. Pain resilience of chronic pain patients' has been found to be a different construct from the general resilience in the field of chronic diseases. Pain resilience emphasizes the cognitive/emotional positivity and behavior persistence of pain patients' when facing pain. So far, there has been no research on the theme of "pain resilience and spiritual health". Researchers have seen the necessity of care and assistance for patients with chronic low back pain. Hence, this study would like to explore "how pain resilience and spiritual health affect the pain experience of patients with chronic low back pain ".

Research objectives: 1. To understand how spiritual health and pain resilience interact to influence the the pain experience in patients with chronic low back pain and 2. To understand how spiritual health and pain resilience interact and influence they way how patients with chronic low back pain cope with pain.

Method: This research plan will be implemented upon obtaining the approval from IRB. An estimated 15 cases will be enrolled. Through in-depth interviews and collection of observational data during interviews, the interviewer will record, transcribe and analyze the narratives and experience descriptions.

The results of this study can become an important basis for clinical care of patients with chronic low back pain.

In the management of chronic pain, it is very important to reaffirm the patient's self-worth and ability through psychological support and spiritual care. The role of spiritual consultant is to provide spiritual consultation and spiritual care, so that the medical team can truly implement a whole-person care of the patient including the body, mind, and family. Pain resilience of chronic pain patients' has been found to be a different construct from the general resilience in the field of chronic diseases. Pain resilience emphasizes the cognitive/emotional positivity and behavior persistence of pain patients' when facing pain. So far, there has been no research on the theme of "pain resilience and spiritual health". Researchers have seen the necessity of care and assistance for patients with chronic low back pain. Hence, this study would like to explore "how pain resilience and spiritual health affect the pain experience of patients with chronic low back pain ".

Research objectives: 1. To understand how spiritual health and pain resilience interact to influence the the pain experience in patients with chronic low back pain and 2. To understand how spiritual health and pain resilience interact and influence they way how patients with chronic low back pain cope with pain.

Method: This research plan will be implemented upon obtaining the approval from IRB. An estimated 15 cases will be enrolled. Through in-depth interviews and collection of observational data during interviews, the interviewer will record, transcribe and analyze the narratives and experience descriptions.

A spiritual consultant and a psychologist will interview the participants about their experiences of chronic low back pain, how they interpret their pain experience and how they cope with the persistent pain. Each participant will be interviewed individually.

Questions related to the following three aspects will be asked:

1. Attributes: describe the changes in your personality, mood, and general happiness you have observed after you starting having chronic low back pain.
2. Pain resilience: How would you describe this persisting pain experience? How do you arrange your daily activity? What do you do to deal with this persistent pain?
3. Spirituality: As a person with chronic low back pain, how do you interpret this pain experience? Do you seek connections with higher powers (such as powers from religion) when you are desperate because of pain? Since the pain is chronic and persistent, it might not go away, how would you define your life?

Plan of analysis: The current study will adopt interpretative phenomenological analysis to to examine the pain experience of the participants. After data was collected through interview, transcripts will be coded in detail. In the process of analyzing the text, the investigators will categorize the text into themes.

The results of this study can become an important basis for clinical care of patients with chronic low back pain.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Individual with non-malignant persistent low back pain that has lasted for at least three months.
* Individual that is willing to undergo interview about their pain experience.
* Individual ages between 20 and 100.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Individual with cognitive or psychological impairments that may compromise the ability to understand the interviewing questionnaire.
* Individual younger that 20 years old.
* The pain is clearly related to spinal cancer.