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Washmuth, NB and Stephens, R (2022) Frankly, we do give a damn: improving patient outcomes with swearing. Archives of Physiotherapy, 12 (1). 6 - ?. ISSN 2057-0082

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Words can change the way a patient thinks, feels, and performs. Swearing, or uttering a word that is considered taboo, is an often-ignored part of our language, even though over 50% of the population swears "sometimes" or "often". If used correctly, within a biopsychosocial approach to care, swearing has the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes. DISCUSSION: Swearing can create tighter human bonds and enhance the therapeutic alliance between a patient and a physical therapist. Improvements in social pain, physical pain tolerance, and physical pain threshold can occur by strategic swearing by our patients. Even physical performance measures, such as power and force could be enhanced if patients swear. CONCLUSION: Although the mechanism by which swearing is effective is unclear, swearing deserves attention in the physical therapy setting based on evidence indicating potential positive effects on patient outcomes.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Swearing, Power, Force, Pain, Biopsychosocial
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Faculty of Natural Sciences > School of Psychology
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Depositing User: Symplectic
Date Deposited: 12 Apr 2022 12:38
Last Modified: 12 Apr 2022 12:38
URI: https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/10786

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