PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF PAIN IN PATIENTS WITH TERMINAL CANCER.

The dying patient reacts emotionally to the problems encountered in the terminal period according to his established pattern of response to stress. The nature of this pattern will play a part in his experience of pain. Some of the types of reaction include the bizarre misinterpretation of bodily sensation of the psychotic, the development of conversion symptoms, the increase in pain through muscle tension in the anxious but overcontrolled person, and the stoical acceptance by guilt-ridden patients. Physicians are sometimes reluctant to devote full attention to the care of the terminally ill for a number of reasons, including the attitude that "curing" is the only worthwhile activity of a doctor of medicine. Observers have found that the physician's attention to the day to day anxieties of the patient in a terminal stage may contribute substantially to his comfort.