No abstract

Every baby, child and adolescent will experience pain at times throughout their life. Despite its ubiquity, pain is a major challenge for individuals, families, healthcare professionals, and societies. Pain is often hidden and can go undiscussed or ignored. Undertreated, unrecognised, or poorly managed pain in childhood leads to important and long-lasting negative consequences that continue into adulthood. This undertreatment should not continue. We have the tools, expertise, and evidence to provide better treatment for childhood pain.In this Commission we present four transformative goals that will, if achieved, transform the lives of children with pain and their families. These goals, taken at face value, may seem simple and obvious. However, if the goals were easy to achieve there would be few, if any, young people reporting poorly managed acute pain, pain after surgery or procedures, or ongoing chronic pain. Pain is multifactorial, and influenced by biological, psychological and social factors, making it complex and difficult to treat effectively, especially in infants, children and adolescents. This Commission focusses on children from birth through to 24 years of age in developed countries.The first transformative goal is to 'make pain matter'. Here we argue that pain has not mattered enough, as evidenced by common failings in clinical practice, low levels of training and investment, and a lack of concern for issues of equity and equality. Despite some good examples of knowledge translation, we highlight that investment in a strong social science research base for paediatric pain will catapult us into a new era in which we can address the social and cultural context of pain.The second is to 'make pain understood' at a fundamental biological and psychological level. There has been excellent progress in mechanistic understandings of nociception and pain perception for both acute and chronic pain states but gaps in knowledge remain. Advances in developmental biology, in genetics, in psychology, and in nosology and classification will all help speed up the discovery in these areas. There is also a need for greater investment in larger international birth cohort studies that incorporate comprehensive pain-related measurement incorporated.The third is to 'make pain visible'. Pain can and should be assessed. We need to help improve understanding of optimal methods for pain assessment at throughout childhood and in all clinical scenarios. While subjective pain report is the primary and desirable method when this is possible, many of the methods and measures that are in common use can and should be improved. There has been development in understanding the biological correlates of pain, and in broader patient reported outcome variables that can expand our horizons. Finally, we should be more focussed on assessing outcomes that are important to patients, rather than those that are central to researchers and clinicians.The fourth is to 'make pain better' by advancing our knowledge of multiple treatment options in all a...

No abstract

The pain associated with immunizations is a source of anxiety and distress for the children receiving the immunizations, their parents, and the providers who must administer them. Preparation of the child before the procedure seems to reduce anxiety and subsequent pain. The limited available data suggest that intramuscular administration of immunizations should occur in the vastus lateralis (anterolateral thigh) for children <18 months of age and in the deltoid (upper arm) for those >36 months of age. Controversy exists in site selection for 18- to 36-month-old children. A number of studies suggest that the ventrogluteal area is the most appropriate for all age groups. Longer needles are usually associated with less pain and less local reaction. During the injection, parental demeanor clearly affects the child's pain behaviors. Excessive parental reassurance, criticism, or apology seems to increase distress, whereas humor and distraction tend to decrease distress. Distraction techniques vary with the age, temperament, and interests of the child, but their efficacy is well supported in the literature. Sucrose solution instilled directly into the mouth or administered on a pacifier reduces evidence of distress reliably in children <6 months of age and should be used routinely. Although there is no perfect topical anesthetic available at this time, selective use for children who are particularly fearful or who have had negative experiences in the past is highly endorsed. Pressure at the site, applied with either a device or a finger, clearly reduces pain. Finally, in the era of multiple injections, it seems that parents prefer that multiple injections be given simultaneously, rather than sequentially, if there are enough personnel available. Immunizations are stressful for many children; until new approaches are developed, systematic use of available techniques can significantly reduce the burden of distress associated with these procedures.