Journal of pain and symptom management
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2004
Barriers to caregiver administration of pain medication in hospice care.
Barriers to adequate pain management in hospice and palliative care settings are an important area of investigation. In this study, a Caregiver Pain Medicine Questionnaire (CPMQ) was developed and psychometrically tested. The CPMQ is a 22-item self-report instrument that measures concern about reporting pain, concern about administering analgesics, and difficulty administering analgesics. ⋯ Concerns of caregivers in the home were significantly greater than staff nurse caregivers in skilled care facilities only in the belief that pain could not be controlled and concern about addiction. Caregivers who had greater concern about addiction and tolerance, and more difficulty administering medications, rated the patient's pain as less completely controlled. These findings remind hospice staff members of the importance of assessing specific caregiver concerns about medication administration and devising appropriate strategies to address them.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2004
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialEvaluation of efficacy of the perioperative administration of venlafaxine XR in the prevention of postmastectomy pain syndrome.
Postmastectomy pain syndrome (PMPS) is a neuropathic pain syndrome that may develop following breast surgery. Venlafaxine has been shown to be efficacious in the management of PMPS. The preemptive administration of venlafaxine has been shown to be efficacious in reducing the incidence of neuropathic pain in the rat model. ⋯ There was a significant decrease in the incidence of chest wall pain (55% vs. 19%, P = 0.0002), arm pain (45% vs. 17%, P = 0.003), and axilla pain (51% vs. 19%, P = 0.0009) between the control group and the venlafaxine group, respectively. No significant differences were noted between the two groups with regard to edema, phantom pain, or sensory changes. We conclude that the perioperative administration of venlafaxine beginning the night prior to surgery significantly reduces the incidence of PMPS following breast cancer surgery.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2004
Comparative Study Clinical TrialPsychometric evaluation of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index in cancer patients.
This report summarizes findings related to the psychometric properties (internal consistency and construct validity) of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and discusses issues related to its use based on data from two clinical studies with diverse samples of cancer patients. Subjects completed a questionnaire that included the PSQI, the Schwartz Cancer Fatigue Scale, and specific demographic, disease, and treatment variables. ⋯ Psychometric evaluation supports its internal consistency reliability and construct validity. However, the scoring is rather cumbersome and raises questions regarding level of measurement and appropriate analysis techniques.