There were differing interpretations among
the patients regarding the origin of the pain and
typically the symptoms were interpreted as serious
and gave rise to considerable concern about what
could possibly be wrong; heart attack, cancer,
gastric ulcer. Some of the patients linked the pain to
different forms of trauma, such as pulling a muscle.
For others, the pain gave rise to thoughts of death,
as the following person explained:
‘After I came home I sat down and watched
television. It began to hurt here (points to his
chest). I thought my time had come.’ (Patient 1).
In the light of the above, the patients expressed
considerable relief on receiving the diagnosis.