Application of pain assessment tools in cancer pain patients / 中国肿瘤临床

ABSTRACT

Cancer pain is an inherently subjective feeling. As such, a patient's report of pain is the basis of assessment. Self-re-ported questionnaires are extensively used in clinical practice and research. Single-item unidimensional rating scales are often used to assess pain intensity. Numerical rating scale is recommended by the European Palliative Care Research Collaborative. Multidimension-al measurements, such as brief pain inventory and short-form McGill pain questionnaire (revised version), can also be used for more comprehensive pain assessments than other questionnaires. Furthermore, specific tools can be applied when cancer-related break-through pain or neuropathic pain is assessed. For patients with cognitive function impairments, face rating scale is a useful tool to screen pain. Multidimensional measurements should also be used for further evaluation. In cancer pain evaluation, the development of simple and practical computer-administered questionnaires is a new trend. Repeated cancer pain assessment is strongly recommended regardless of the applied scale.