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- Title
Assessment of pain.
- Authors
Breivik, H; Borchgrevink, P C; Allen, S M; Rosseland, L A; Romundstad, L; Hals, E K Breivik; Kvarstein, G; Stubhaug, A
- Abstract
Valid and reliable assessment of pain is essential for both clinical trials and effective pain management. The nature of pain makes objective measurement impossible. Acute pain can be reliably assessed, both at rest (important for comfort) and during movement (important for function and risk of postoperative complications), with one-dimensional tools such as numeric rating scales or visual analogue scales. Both these are more powerful in detecting changes in pain intensity than a verbal categorical rating scale. In acute pain trials, assessment of baseline pain must ensure sufficient pain intensity for the trial to detect meaningful treatment effects. Chronic pain assessment and its impact on physical, emotional, and social functions require multidimensional qualitative tools and health-related quality of life instruments. Several disease- and patient-specific functional scales are useful, such as the Western Ontario and MacMaster Universities for osteoarthritis, and several neuropathic pain screening tools. The Initiative on
- Publication
British journal of anaesthesia, 2008, Vol 101, Issue 1, p17
- ISSN
1471-6771
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1093/bja/aen103