A woman is receiving physical therapy after surgery to repair a hip fracture.She tells the therapist before therapy begins that she expects therapy to be very painful.She rates her pain as 1 on a scale of 1 to 10 before therapy.Three minutes into the treatment session,the patient complains of excruciating pain rated as 10 and says she cannot tolerate exercise any longer.The therapist is concerned with the amount of pain,because severe pain is not expected during that form of exercise.The therapist considers the patient could be experiencing:

Question

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The nocebo effect is a demonstration of the power of the mind to create bodily distress.The patient was expecting the treatment to be very painful,and this tends to increase the treatment discomfort.Phantom limb pain is sometimes experienced after an amputation but has nothing to do with surgery to repair a hip fracture.There is no evidence that the patient's pain medication is ineffective or that she is experiencing a complication from surgery.

A Woman Is Receiving Physical Therapy After Surgery to Repair