Does Pain Adversely Affect the Quality of Life in Hospitalized Cancer Patients? (original) (raw)
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Pain experience and pain management among hospitalized cancer patients. A clinical study
Cancer, 1989
This study examines the nature, pattern, and consequences of pain experienced by cancer patients, both during hospitalization and during the immediate posthospitalization period. Of the 240 hospitalized cancer patients screened, 45% were found to be in pain. Although 59% of these patients had found ways to reduce their pain, nearly one third reported being seriously limited in their daily activities. Sleep disorder and mood disturbance also were related to the experience of pain. Applied pain management strategies were rated by two physicians as inadequate in 54% of cases. The most frequent recommendation for improved pain management was an increase in the dosage or a change in the class of analgesics. The importance of periodic assessment of pain and its consequences, both physical and psychological, is discussed in light of increasing the level of information available to physicians and patients regarding appropriate approaches to pain management.
Cancer Pain and Quality of Life
Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, 2019
Cancer pain is an unrelenting symptom with the potential to alter the quality of life of patients. To adequately manage pain, nurses caring for cancer patients need to fully understand each patient"s pain experience. The purpose of this study was to identify the intensity, distress, frequency, or constancy of pain in patients treated for cancer or cancer symptoms and to better understand patient barriers to pain management. This cross-sectional study included patients (N = 105) treated for cancer or cancer symptoms at 2 outpatient medical centers. Assessments included the Pain Barriers Scale, the Cancer Symptom Scale, and the Multidimensional QOL ScaleYCancer. Descriptive statistics and Spearman correlations were used to analyze the data. Sixty-nine percent of patients reported present pain of moderate to severe intensity that caused distress, was frequent/constant, or interfered with their lives. Patients with the greatest pain distress reported the greatest intensity of pain (r = 0.77) and the greatest interference (r = 0.78) with daily lives. Cancer pain was associated with significant distress and interference with life activities and occurred frequently or constantly for many study patients.
Pain and its treatment in hospitalized patients with metastatic cancer
Supportive Care in Cancer, 2003
Goals The aim of this prospective study was to assess the quality of pain management hospitalized cancer patients. Patients and methods In a quantitative and qualitative evaluation from six oncology centers in Italy, all consecutive cancer patients complaining of pain and hospitalized during the same 2 weeks were requested to fill in a McGill pain questionnaire (MPQ), a present pain intensity scale (PPI), and a hospital anxiety and depression acale (HADS), and to answer a questionnaire focused (QF) on the quality of medical and nursing care. The healthcare provider's antalgic prescriptions were assessed by an index of pain management (IPM). Main results Of 120 patients with pain admitted to oncology divisions (65 men and 52 women; mean age 57 years, range 21–79 years), 117 completed the questionnaires. The quantitative evaluation (PPI) showed a significant pain reduction between admission and discharge pain levels—from 2.65 to 1.50 (p<0.001). While a significant reduction of anxiety (HADS) was also found—from 10.24 to 9.11 (p<0.001)—depression did not improve (9.83 and 9.72). The most relevant information from qualitative evaluation (QF) was: in 37.6% of patients, pain level was higher overnight; 47% waited for spontaneous decrease of pain intensity before asking for nurse or physician intervention; 69% asked for nurse help when pain level was really high. The health care response to patients' pain was not completely satisfactory, since analgesic prescription was adequate in 56.52% but inadequate in 43.47%. Conclusions Pain control in hospitalized cancer patients is not completely satisfactory. The physician's attitude is to underestimate and undertreat pain, while nurses are not adequately trained for timely intervention despite published guidelines for pain management. The findings of this study support the concern of inadequate knowledge and inappropriate attitudes regarding pain management, even in cancer patients hospitalized in medical oncology divisions.
Cancer is an increasing public health burden for Ethiopia. Pain is among the most common symptoms in patients with cancer. Hence, we aimed to assess cancer pain prevalence, cancer pain interference, and adequacy of cancer pain treatment in the oncology ward of an Ethiopian teaching hospital. Of 83 patients, total of 76 (91.6%) cancer patients experienced pain with varying degree of severity, and 7 (8.4%) patients experienced severe pain. Of the 76 cancer patients with pain, 68 (89.2%) experienced pain interference with their daily activities. Fifty-four (65%) patients were receiving inadequate cancer pain treatment with negative Pain Management Index. Therefore, it is vital to anticipate and assess pain of the cancer patients as routine clinical practice, to optimize analgesic therapy, and to identify and overcome barriers to adequate pain management.
Pain and its interference with daily activities in medical oncology outpatients
Pain physician
Pain prevalence at various stages of cancer ranges from 27% to 60% for outpatients. Yet, how pain is managed in this patient group is poorly understood. The primary objective was to assess pain prevalence and intensity, and its interference with daily activities, in medical oncology outpatients. The secondary objectives were the adequacy of analgesic pain treatment and to identify independent predictors for moderate to severe pain. A cross-sectional study. Oncology outpatient clinics of 7 Dutch regional hospitals. Four hundred twenty-eight medical oncology outpatients were assigned to the study. Pain prevalence and interference of pain with daily activities were assessed using the Brief Pain Inventory. Adequacy of analgesic treatment was determined by calculating the Pain Management Index (PMI). Descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests, and logistic regression analysis were conducted. More than one third of all participants reported pain (39%). Eighty-three patients (20%) had mo...
Pain, 1999
The optimal assessment of cancer pain includes a detailed description of pain characteristics and classi®cation by both syndrome and likely mechanisms. In the clinical setting, the interpretation of this information is aided by knowledge of the available clinical experiences on these aspects of the pain. Unfortunately, existing data are limited. There have been few large surveys of cancer pain characteristics and syndromes, and comparative data from patients in different parts of the world are entirely lacking. To better de®ne the characteristics of cancer pain syndromes the Task Force on Cancer Pain of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) conducted a prospective, crosssectional, international, multicenter survey of pain specialists and their patients. From a total of 100 clinicians who described themselves as cancer pain practitioners in the IASP membership directory, 51 agreed to participate in the survey and a total of 58 provided data. These clinicians resided in 24 countries and evaluated a total of 1095 patients with severe cancer pain mostly requiring opioid medication, using a combination of patient-rated and observer-rated measures. The patient-rated scales comprised a pain intensity measure chosen from the brief pain inventory. The observer-rated information included demographic and tumor-related data, and responses on checklists of pain syndromes and pathophysiologies. Patients were heterogeneous in terms of demographics and tumor-related information. More than 76% had a Karnofsky performance status score # 70. Almost one-quarter of the patients experienced two or more pains. A large majority of the patients (92.5%) had one or more pains caused directly by the cancer; 20.8% of patients had one or more pains caused by cancer therapies. The average (SD) duration of pain was 5.9 (10.5) months. Approximately two-thirds of patients (66.7%) reported that the worst pain intensity during the day prior to the survey was^7 on a 10-point numeric scale. The factors that were univariately associated with higher pain intensity included the presence of breakthrough pain, somatic pain or neuropathic pain, age younger than 60 years, and lower performance status score. A multivariate model suggested that the presence of breakthrough pain, somatic pain, and lower performance status were the most important predictors of intense pain. Pains that were inferred by the treating clinician to be nociceptive and due to somatic injury occurred in 71.6% of the patients. Pains labeled nociceptive visceral were noted in 34.7% and pains inferred to have neuropathic mechanisms occurred in 39.7%. In a broad classi®cation, the major pain syndromes comprised bone or joint lesions (41.7% of patients), visceral lesions (28.1%), soft tissue in®ltration (28.3%), and peripheral nerve injuries (27.8%). Twenty-two types of pain syndromes were most prevalent. Large differences in the diagnosis of breakthrough pain by clinicians of different countries suggest that this phenomenon is either de®ned or recognized differently across countries. These data con®rm, in segment of the cancer population experiencing severe pain, in different parts of the world, that cancer pain characteristics, syndromes and pathophysiologies are very heterogeneous. Predictors of worsening pain can be identi®ed. The data provide a useful context for the interpretation of pain-related information acquired in both clinical and research settings. They suggest the need for future studies and the potential usefulness of a written checklist for cancer pain syndromes and pathophysiologies. q 1999 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.