Articles: pain-measurement.
-
Prospective cohort study. ⋯ 3.
-
Postoperative pain is commonly assessed through a numerical rating scale (NRS), an 11-point scale where 0 indicates no pain and 10 indicates the worst imaginable pain. Guidelines advise the administration of analgesics at NRS pain scores above 3 or 4. In clinical practice, not all patients with pain scores above the treatment threshold are willing to accept additional analgesic treatment, especially when opioids are offered. The objective of this study is to measure the relation between patients' NRS pain scores and their desire for additional opioids. ⋯ With the current guidelines (ie, using pain scores above 3 or 4 for prescribing opioids), many patients could be overtreated. Therefore, scores generated by the NRS should be interpreted individually.
-
Observational Study
Validation of the Greek Version of the DN4 Diagnostic Questionnaire for Neuropathic Pain.
The Douleur Neuropathique 4 questionnaire (DN4) was developed by the French Neuropathic Pain Group and is a simple and objective tool, primarily designed to screen for neuropathic pain. The aim of our study is to validate the DN4 in the Greek language. ⋯ The Greek version of DN4 is a valid tool for discriminating between neuropathic and nociceptive pain conditions in daily practice.
-
Measuring HRQOL is simple, inexpensive, permits the health status to be measured over time, and is useful to compare or initiate treatments and evaluate results, facilitating homogenization in patient inclusion. ⋯ Health-related quality-of-life measures detected significant differences in outcomes in patients infected by S. aureus compared with patients infected by other microorganisms. HRQOL measures may provide useful complementary information on outcomes after acute postoperative infection.
-
Fibromyalgia (FM) is common in older adults suffering from mood disorders. However, clinical diagnosis of FM is challenging, particularly in psychiatric settings. We examined the prevalence of FM and the sensitivity of three simple screeners for FM. ⋯ Nearly one in three older adults suffering from depression and chronic low back pain met ACR 1990 FM criteria. Three short screening tests showed high sensitivity when compared to the ACR 1990 FM criteria. Implementation of one of the simple screeners for FM in geriatric psychiatry settings may guide the need for further diagnostic evaluation.