Believing the patient with chronic pain: a review of the literature.

The aim of this article is to review the literature on studies on the effect of having health professionals treat a patient's pain experience as credible and to propose considerations for nursing practice. A systematic literature search was performed via Cinahl, Medline, British Nursing Index, Cochrane and PsychINFO from 1970-2003 using the key words 'chronic pain', 'attitude', 'confirmation', 'listening to' and 'belief'. Study findings were reviewed in relation to the effect of 'being believed'. There are no studies that look exclusively at the effects of having a health professional believe a patient's reported pain experience; however, within the literature there are several references to the need to examine this phenomenon. Future research in this area is needed to provide direction for clinical practice for nurses in this aspect of chronic pain management.