The effects of pain management on pain concepts and experiences

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Access to pain medication varies considerably in different settings. How this affects concepts of pain and the way different types and experiences of pain are treated remains poorly understood. This research uses theory from cultural anthropology to investigate how cultural variation in pain care affects how sufferers understand and experience pain and, in turn, how variation in conceptualizations of pain affect social relationships. The project provides training for a postdoctoral researcher, a graduate student, and undergraduate students from underrepresented groups. Results will be disseminated broadly to academic and non-academic audiences, including healthcare workers and other stakeholders. The goal of this project is to investigate pain and care practices to understand how practices and meanings of pain are shaped by varying biomedical and cultural contexts. The project uses ethnography, interviews in health facilities and community settings, and document and archival analysis to pursue three complementary objectives: to investigate differences in biomedical versus community-driven care practices; to understand how differences in care practices affect and are affected by social relationships; and to understand how different cultural contexts intersect with 2 and 3 to shape experiences and understandings of pain. This research will help to develop and test theories that account for the complex intersections of individual attributes and social, cultural, and political structures in shaping meaning and experience in the mind-body connection.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.