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. 2023 May 30;3:e41672. doi: 10.2196/41672

Table 4.

Five rhetorical themes among the posts on personal experiences of living with chronic pain.

Theme Function Examples
Subjective scales Convey how patients feel relative to their baseline levels of chronic pain

  • “new level of pain”

  • “very severe”

  • “immense”

  • “worsening”

  • “manage my pain level”
Examples of quality of life impact Show concrete examples of how chronic pain impacts various aspects of life

  • “disruptive”

  • “disabling”

  • “daily struggle”

  • “barely tolerable”
Frequency and length of pain descriptors Demonstrate the regularity of chronic pain

  • “daily”

  • “intermittent”

  • “unceasing

  • “progressive”
Illustrative characterizations of pain Pinpoints differences in quality of chronic pain experienced

  • “burning”

  • “throbbing”

  • “radiating”

  • “sharp”
Self-validating language Emphasizes the authenticity and weight of lived chronic pain experiences

  • “legitimate”

  • “actual”

  • “real”

  • “serious”