Relating to the pain of others: The experience of those associated with fibromyalgia patients in the city of Santiago de Chile.

Abstract

The objective of this work was to understand the experience of those who have some closeness and are linked from the role of caregivers to patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia. During 2018, a series of in-depth interviews was conducted with a group of eight people in the city of Santiago de Chile, linked from the role of parents, siblings, friends or partners to those who suffer from fibromyalgia seeking to know the set of shared senses that it is possible to deduce around his experience with said diagnosis. The results show six thematic axes that define and build the experience of these people: 1) Diagnosis and causes of fibromyalgia, 2) Performance and fibromyalgia, 3) Reactions towards pain, 4) Future perspectives, 5) Costs of treatment , and 6) Learnings. The foregoing allows us to delimit the conditions that are necessary so that the pain reported by those who suffer from fibromyalgia is experienced by those who are linked to such people, as a legitimate experience of suffering.