The end of the road? Lay views on a pain-relief clinic

Studies of the lay evaluation of pain-relief clinics are rare, particularly in the U.K. Hence, in an attempt to rectify this lacuna, this paper reports the findings of a small-scale qualitative study which charts the vicissitudes of hope acid despair of attenders at pain-relief clinics in London. In doing so, we demonstrate the complex interplay between peoples' pain careers, their styles of adjustment, socio-demographic characteristics, and their evaluations of medical treatment. Sadly, for many of these patients, this was the end of the road and their last hope of finding relief. Unfortunately, however, the overarching feeling was of medicine having ''failed'' them. The paper concludes with a discussion of these findings and some suggestions for possible future research in this area. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd