The role for narrative in the era of evidence-based pain care.

摘要

For years I questioned the value of narrative to improve pain management, increase our understanding of pain mechanisms and treatment, or even to teach students and trainees how best to treat and investigate pain. As an editor in the Pain Palliative and Supportive Care Group2 of the Cochrane Collaboration.3 the Oxford University-based international consortium dedicated to evidence-based medicine, I am committed to the use of evidence as the driving force for improved pain care. From that perspective I questioned how taking a subjective approach to the study of pain would add to our understanding of it. And what is more subjective than narrative? Like many academically based pain clinicians and investigators, I considered the humanities and social sciences to be nice complements to scientific inquiry, but certainly no substitute for randomized, controlled, clinical trials and rigorous laboratory research.