Abstracts Category : Other

Pain, people, and ethnicity

by Danielle Eun-Joo Min

Pain is an integral part of the life experience. Furthermore, the factors that influence the experience of pain are dynamic. Of the various influencing factors, ethnicity has a growing literature that is revealing how an individuals subjectivity that stems from ancestral and geographic origins is affecting this process of pain perception. The actual perception of pain has been shown to be quite different among different ethnicities. Ethnically motivated dispositions, in terms of coping, has also led to more questions on how effectively patients can be treated for pain when medicine often attempts to mandate objectivity. Moreover, the interaction and feedback that patients and providers give to each other is a powerful indicator of how pain is experienced and how successful the outcomes of treatment will be.