Mindfulness-based stress reduction for chronic pain management
pp. 369-381
in: Fabrizio Didonna (ed), Clinical handbook of mindfulness, Berlin, Springer, 2009Abstract
Pain is a common complaint in primary care, with chronic pain reported in 20% of visits to general practitioners (McCaffrey et al., 2003). Twenty percent of adults suffer from chronic pain, rising to half of those of the older age population (Cousins et al., 2004). Chronic pain, defined as "intermittent or continuous pain persisting longer than six months or beyond the regular healing time for a given injury" can impact on patients' physical and emotional well-being (Siddall et al., 2004) and may be associated with disability disproportionate to degree of injury, as well as with depression and anxiety (Bair et al., 2003). Despite analgesics, surgeries and procedures, pain is poorly controlled by traditional Western medicine (Cousins et al., 2004, Furrow, 2001).