Social Support Can Increase or Decrease Pain Depending on...

I had a patient at who said, “I know my family wants to help by coming to see me, but they're wearing me out”.

The biopsychosocial approach has taught us many things about pain.

One of them is the importance of social interaction.

Like everything dealing with humans, it can be simple or complex.

Too much and too smoothering can increase pain.

Too little and too lonely can increase pain.

Just like the three little bears, people need what's just right for them.

This study agrees with this philosophy:

• “In line with laboratory research, there is evidence that everyday-life social contact can alleviate, but also intensify pain, depending on the type of social support. Everyday-life emotional support seems to reduce pain, while extensive solicitous support was found to have opposite effects. Moreover, positive short-term effects of social support can be overshadowed by other symptoms such as fatigue.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38687594/

Moving My Website

I am moving my professional blog to this website.

If you are looking for any of my old articles, please use the search below or visit the archived page. All the articles are archived on this site.

About the Website

When I first got out of PT school I was overwhelmed from everything I didn't know.

Treating patients was much more complex than what we learned in school.

So I used this anxiety and curiosity and turned it into a borderline obsession of research and writing.

What I found was that writing was extremely helpful to organize my thoughts and find where there were holes in my paradigms.

I would do a ton of research. Implement these concepts in the clinic. And then wrote about what I found.

I’ve had a ton of clinicians contact me, thanking me for sharing the information. Some people said had some very generous praise.

But I really did it out of the fear of not being able to help my patients.

This anxiety driven curiosity coupled with my practical hands on experience helped me become an expert in the field.

Since my focus is now shifting to our business, Black Bear PT, I am consolidating my digital footprint and will be writing exclusively on this website.

Again, if you are looking for any of my old articles, please use the search page or the archived page. All the articles are archived on this site.

If you have any specific questions, don’t hesitate to contact me directly at ASwansonPT@gmail.com

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