Pain
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Comparative Study
Physician ratings of pain descriptors: potential diagnostic utility.
A large sample of staff physicians and residents (n = 193) responded to a questionnaire in which they were asked to rate 10 pain descriptors for level of applicability to 4 common acute and chronic pain syndromes. The purpose of the study was to examine the extent to which physicians would agree on the ratings, and whether they would rate the descriptors in a way that would permit discriminations to be made between the pain syndromes. Physicians' opinions regarding the usefulness of pain descriptors and the effect of several practice-related variables on the usage of pain descriptors were also assessed. ⋯ For all physicians, the diagnostic utility of pain descriptors was rated higher for acute than for chronic pain. Other comparisons between acute and chronic pain revealed that acute pain was rated by physicians as more painful and more interfering with mood and physical activity. The implications of these findings are discussed.
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As part of a wider research project aimed at investigating how children think about several aspects of pain, definitions of pain used by 680 Irish schoolchildren aged 5-14 years were examined to see if a developmental pattern could be identified in the acquisition of a verbally mediated concept of pain. The results are consonant with a Piagetian developmental model, suggesting the possibility of delineating typical concepts of pain which correspond to successive stages of cognitive development.