Pain is one of the main causes of fear for cancer patients, and sometimes patients fear pain more than the threat of death. Pain often leads to psychological problems. Persistent pain not only interferes with patients’ normal activities, but also causes serious psychological disorders by reminding them of the presence of cancer and facing death at any time. Severe pain is one of the main factors leading to patients’ suicidal tendency. Therefore, in cancer pain treatment, it is important to pay attention to patients’ psychological problems, especially for patients with severe pain, and psychotherapy while giving analgesia will reduce the influence of psychological problems on pain and significantly improve the analgesic effect and patients’ quality of life.
Through effective psychological care, the patient’s anxiety and pain level can be reduced, and the dosage, frequency and addiction of painkillers can be reduced. The patient’s family should communicate with the patient frequently, actively and enthusiastically to help reduce pain perception. Positive emotions such as cheerfulness, excitement or full of confidence decrease sensitivity to injurious stimuli and increase pain threshold, while on the contrary, negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, sadness and despair decrease pain threshold. Pain-related stress responses can also lead to a decrease in the body’s lymphocytes, an increase in leukocytes and an inhibited reticuloendothelial system. These factors make cancer patients’ resistance to pathogens weaken.
1.Psychological assessment of cancer pain patients For psychological care of cancer pain patients, family members should first understand the most basic needs of patients and master the rules of patients’ psychological activities, and use music, books or pictures for psychological care, and the selected contents should be suitable for patients’ cultural level and interests. Purchase the necessary books, pictures and audio devices to meet the patient’s needs.
2. Supportive psychotherapy (1) The content of supportive psychotherapy includes guidance, persuasion, guidance, encouragement, comfort, and psychological reassurance for the patient. When conducting supportive therapy, family members must treat the patients enthusiastically and be highly sympathetic to their physical and mental suffering, and respect them even if their ideas and practices are not right.
This is not only to understand the patient’s condition, but also to make the patient feel that his friends and family are very seriously concerned about their suffering, thus creating a sense of trust, feeling that he is not alone, and building up courage and confidence. In addition, the patient will feel much more relaxed if he or she can talk freely.
Diversion: Diversion therapy is to make patients confide their painful emotions at that time, so that they can get rid of the emotional experience and eliminate the symptoms of the disease. Since cancer patients are suffering from pain for a long time, they often have various negative psychologies, and if they do not ventilate in time, the efficacy of pain control will be reduced.
Reassurance: It is also quite important to give comfort to patients after they tell their emotional experiences. Reassurance should be appropriate, emphasizing the promising aspects but not so optimistic that the patient loses trust.
(2) Relaxation therapy: Learning to apply relaxation therapy to fully relax the muscles of the whole body is not only a good way to relieve pain and prevent it from increasing, but also plays a very important role in the recovery process of the disease to effectively eliminate anxiety, help patients improve the quality of sleep, rest fully, and regain strength as soon as possible. Relaxation therapy has various forms, such as listening to music, reading books, reading newspapers, watching TV, massaging and applying heat to painful areas, etc. It helps to make patients produce positive physiological changes, such as lowering blood pressure, reducing the number of pulse beats, decreasing the level of anxiety and suppressing psychological tension by themselves. Increase the physical and psychological comfort of the patient and reduce the degree of pain perception.
(3) Music therapy: Music directly affects the emotional response of patients. Beautiful and gentle music can have a good physiological effect on all systems of the human body, making people feel relaxed and happy, emotional stability, and distracting the patient’s attention from the pain. It is advisable to choose music with relaxing, fresh and elegant melodies, such as Beethoven’s “Minuet in G Major”, Mozart’s “Romance” and Brammertz’s “Lullaby”.