Yoga, chronic pain and psychological well-being

Abstract

Pain is an inevitable and unavoidable universal human experience. The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines pain as ‘an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage’ [1]. Unrelieved pain becomes chronic in nature when it persists for more than 3 months. [1] Chronic pain is often characterized by varying pain intensity, with onset and duration being fairly unpredictable. Chronic pain affects between 12 to 25% of the adult population in the US and 19% of Europeans [2,3]. Despite its crucial role for survival, pain becomes problematic when it is enduring, persistent and dominating and when it impairs the quality of life of the sufferer. Living with pain on a day-to-day basis can be exhausting, especially when no pain relief is available [4]. Psychological factors play a crucial role in the experience of pain [4]. The individual’s beliefs, thoughts, coping mechanisms, expectations, emotions, self-efficacy, locus of control and perceived limitations due to the pain are important aspects influencing pain perception and coping [5,6].