Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2003
The impact of demographic and disease-specific variables on pain in cancer patients.
The aim of this study was to examine to what extent demographic and disease-specific variables affected pain in cancer patients. Two to three weeks after their last hospitalization, 1,453 cancer patients completed questionnaires measuring demographic variables, quality of life, and pain (EORTC-QLQ C-30). Response rate was 72.1%. ⋯ Sex, age, level of education, and co-habitation were not related to pain, but employment status was. The patients on disability pensions had significantly more pain than the patients who were working or studying. Special attention should be given to patients with advanced prostate cancer with a short time to live, as they reported the most pain.
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To evaluate the degree of pain control among ambulatory cancer patients visiting the outpatient clinics of three oncology centers in south Israel, these patients were interviewed using the Brief Pain Inventory translated into Hebrew (BPI-Heb). Patients suffering from pain at least three times a week or reporting taking daily analgesics during the last two weeks were enrolled. Non-Hebrew speakers and patients too frail or ill were excluded. ⋯ Physicians estimated more severe pain levels, but underestimated its impact on everyday life. These data indicate that better pain control for ambulatory cancer patients is needed and that more information about patients' pain and its impact should be solicited. Further training of care providers is needed to improve the relief from cancer pain and the quality of life of patients.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2003
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialA pharmacokinetic study to compare two simultaneous 400 microg doses with a single 800 microg dose of oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate.
It is unknown whether two smaller doses of oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate (OTFC) administered simultaneously are pharmacokinetically equivalent to an identical dose administered as a single unit. This issue has important practical implications when patients are attempting to identify the appropriate dosage of OTFC to control their pain. This open-label, randomized, crossover design study compared the pharmacokinetics of two simultaneously consumed 400 microg OTFC doses with one 800 microg OTFC dose in 12 healthy volunteers. ⋯ Area under the curve (AUC) was 8.2 ng/ml.hr (SE=1.1) and 7.2 ng/ml.hr (SE=1.0). There were no significant differences between the treatment groups in either the time to peak concentration (Tmax) or the mean residence time (MRT). The results demonstrate the bioequivalence of two 400 microg with one 800 microg OTFC units.