Moderate-to-severe pain is a common problem experienced by patients with cancer. Although analgesic drugs are effective, adverse side effects are common and some analgesic drugs are addictive. Nonpharmacological treatment may be a way to treat cancer pain without causing negative side effects. Mindfulness is used as an effective nonpharmacological treatment to improve quality of life (QoL) and to address psychological problems including distress, anxiety, stress, and depression. However, the effect of mindfulness on pain severity has not been sufficiently investigated. Therefore, a systematic review was undertaken to describe the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions for pain and its underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms. The search was conducted in PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, and CINAHL and included only empirical studies published from 2008 to 2017. Search terms included mindfulness, mindfulness-based intervention, meditation, cancer, pain, and cancer-related pain. Six studies met the search criteria. These studies tested several types of intervention including mindfulness-based stress reduction, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, meditation with massage, and mindful awareness practices. Study outcomes include improved pain severity, anxiety, stress, depression, and QoL. However, most studies reviewed were conducted in the United States and Denmark. Further research is needed to test culturally appropriate mindfulness interventions to reduce pain.
First published in 1975, the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) is an often cited pain measure but there have been no systematic reviews of the MPQ in cancer populations. The objective is to evaluate the MPQ as a multidimensional measure of pain in people with cancer. A systematic search of research that used the MPQ in adults with cancer and published in English from 1975 to 2009 was conducted. Twenty-one articles retrieved through computerized searches and nine studies from manual searches met the criteria. Review of the 30 studies demonstrated that pain intensity (n=29 studies) and pain quality (n=27 studies) were measured more frequently than pain location, pattern, and behavior parameters. Measuring cancer pain using the MPQ provided insights about disease sites, magnitude of pain and the effectiveness of treatment and intervention. Additionally, the MPQ data informed speculations about pain mechanisms, emotional status, overall sensory pain experience, changes in pain over time, and alleviating and aggravating behaviors/factors. Findings supported that the MPQ was an effective multidimensional measure with good stability, content, construct, and criterion validity and showed sensitivity to treatment or known-group effects. The MPQ is a valid, reliable, and sensitive multidimensional measure of cancer pain. Cancer pain is a subjective, complex experience consisting of multiple dimensions, and measuring cancer pain with the MPQ may help clinicians to more fully understand if those Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptPain Manag Nurs. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 March 1. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript dimensions of cancer pain influence each other. As a result, clinicians can provide better and effective cancer pain management. KeywordsMcGill Pain Questionnaire; Multidimensional Measure; Cancer; Pain; Pain scoring; ConceptualizationThe evaluation of cancer pain remains a troubling issue because of the subjective experience of pain and the complexity of the disease (McGuire, 1995;Wilkie & Monreal, 1999). Many investigators have used the multidimensional conceptualization of cancer pain as a framework for assessing and studying cancer pain as a subjective perception (Turk, Monarch, & Williams, 2002). The McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) is a comprehensive multidimensional measure (Ahles, Blanchard, & Ruckdeschel, 1983;McGuire, 1995;Melzack & Wall, 1965;Wilkie & Monreal, 1999) that quantifies neurophysiological as well as psychological domains of pain. The MPQ, there...
Pain pattern represents how the individual’s pain changes temporally with activities or other factors. Understanding pain pattern is important for appropriate timing of pain interventions, but researchers have studied less the temporal aspects of cancer pain than pain location, intensity, and quality parameters. The study purpose was to explore differences in pain location, intensity, and quality by pattern groups in outpatients with cancer. We conducted a comparative, secondary data analysis of data collected from 1994 to 2007. 762 outpatients with cancer had completed the 0-to-10 Pain Intensity Number Scale and the McGill Pain Questionnaire to measure pain location, quality and pattern. From all possible combinations of the three types of pain patterns, we created seven pain pattern groups. The distribution of pain pattern was: pattern-1 (27%); pattern-2 (24%); pattern-3 (8%); pattern-4 (12%); pattern-5 (3%); pattern-6 (18%); and pattern-7 (8%). A statistically significant higher proportion of patients with continuous pain patterns (pattern 1, 4, 5, and 7) reported pain location in two or more sites. Patients with pattern 1, 4, and 7 reported statistically significant, higher worst pain mean scores than patients with pattern 2, 3, and 6 (not continuous descriptors). Patients with pattern7 reported statistically significant, higher mean scores (pain rating index-sensory and total number of words selected) than patients with pattern1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. Using pain pattern groups may help clinicians to understand temporal changes in cancer pain and to provide more effective pain management by recognizing the high risk if the pain is continuous.
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