On the concept of total pain

Abstract

The pain suffering in cancer patients has been described as “total pain”. The concept of “total pain” plays a key role in the promotion of the multidisciplinary nature of palliative care. In palliative attention, suffering is conceptualized as an addition of physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual and social aspects. In this paper, I offer a characterization of the concept of “total pain”, one which preserves its key role in palliative care promotion. First, I sketch the concept and some different usages found in the literature. Second, I establish the nature and referent of the “total pain” concept by means of showing the contrast between it and the pain definition provided by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). Third, I propose that the concept of “total pain” refers to the relevant causal chains identified by the palliative care research as elements susceptible of intervention for the purpose of alleviating patient’s suffering. These causal chains feature and link physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual and social aspects of the patient’s suffering. As conclusion, I add the recommendation to not associate the concept of “total pain” with any particular diagnostic or disease or any particular prognosis, neither to the global experience of the patient, nor treat it as a high point on a scale.