From shame to respect: musculoskeletal pain patients' experience of a rehabilitation programme, a qualitative study

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to describe and analyse how participants with fibromyalgia or chronic, widespread, musculoskeletal pain, 1 year after completion, experienced a rehabilitation programme; and what knowledge and strategies they had gained. DESIGN, METHODS AND SUBJECTS: Semi-structured interviews with 16 female patients were analysed using the grounded theory method of constant comparison. RESULTS: One core category, from shame to respect, and 4 categories, developing body awareness/knowledge, setting limits, changing self-image and negative counterbalancing factors, and hopelessness and frustration over one's employment situation emerged from the data. The core category represents a process where the informants changed emotionally. Three categories were identified as important for starting and maintaining the process, one category affected the process negatively. CONCLUSION: The rehabilitation programme started the process of change, from shame to respect. The informants learned new strategies for handling their pain and other symptoms; they improved their self-image and communication in their social environment.