Acceptance of chronic pain

The experience of chronic pain can be associated with significant distress and disability, although this is not always the case. While attempts to control or reduce pain can be helpful for many pain sufferers, on some occasions this is not an effective option and a different response is required. This different response can include a flexible mix of control and acceptance. Here the acceptance part of this mix entails a willingness to have pain, or other uncomfortable private experiences, without taking action to control or eliminate them. At least fifteen laboratory and clinical studies make the growing case for the role of acceptance in the functioning of persons with chronic pain and evidence from treatment outcome studies is promising. It appears that acceptance-related processes will, at least, expand our range of psychological treatment methods for chronic pain sufferers, and at best, significantly improve them.