ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
Psychological intervention can contribute to repairing the quality of life and altering behavior while dealing with chronic orofacial pain, especially those that can become refractory to treatments. Thus, the objective of this study was to present the narratives of three patients with refractory chronic neuropathic pain during the process of psychotherapeutic intervention and the follow-up results.
CASE REPORTS:
Pain behavior, pain perception and depressive and anxious symptoms were assessed. Patients were under treatment at the Orofacial Pain Clinic and the instruments used in the beginning and end of psychotherapy were the visual analog scale, Beck Inventories (anxiety and depression), Wisconsin Pain Inventory, McGill Pain Questionnaire and Pain Catastrophizing Scale. They attended weekly 50-minute sessions. Each narrative was qualitatively analyzed and the comparison between the evaluations made before and after psychotherapy was included in the context of a phenomenological approach.
CONCLUSION:
Emotional familiar conflicts and fear of pain crises were the most important aspects described by these patients. Case 1 presented the less cooperative profile and secondary gains. Despite of that, all cases presented improvement and psychotherapy helped to cope with their problems and pain. There was a remarkable impact on the life of patients as well as on their cooperation with pain treatments while helping the patients to build a proactive attitude and to understand their role in their condition.
Keywords:
Chronic pain; Neuropathic orofacial pain. Pain behavior; Psychotherapy; Trigeminal neuralgia