Responding Wisely to Persistent Pain: Insights from Patristic Theology and Clinical Experience

For most of the past generation, clinicians have been taught to treat patients' pain until the patient says it is relieved. The opioid crisis has forced both clinicians and patients to reconsider that approach. This essay considers how Christians in particular might assume and seek to overcome...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:"Attending to Persons in Pain and Modern Health Care"
Main Author: Curlin, Farr A. 1971- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Oxford University Press 2023
In: Christian bioethics
Year: 2023, Volume: 29, Issue: 3, Pages: 196-206
IxTheo Classification:CB Christian life; spirituality
KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity
NBE Anthropology
NCH Medical ethics
Further subjects:B Pain
B Medicalization
B Church Fathers
B Suffering
B Chronic Pain
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:For most of the past generation, clinicians have been taught to treat patients' pain until the patient says it is relieved. The opioid crisis has forced both clinicians and patients to reconsider that approach. This essay considers how Christians in particular might assume and seek to overcome their experiences of persistent pain. Wise and faithful responses to pain, especially chronic pain, can take their bearings from how early Christians made sense of the place of both medicine and suffering in a faithful life. This results in not asking medicine to resolve persistent pain, especially not through the use of opioids. Resisting the impulse to medicalize chronic pain will require patience on the part of those who suffer, and both patience and fortitude on the part of the clinicians to whom they present.
ISSN:1744-4195
Contains:Enthalten in: Christian bioethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/cb/cbad020