Abstract
Objective: This review wished to determine the reported prevalence of suffering in various patient diagnostic groups and examine the evidence for the association of pain and suffering. Design/Setting: Twenty-four studies fulfilled inclusion-exclusion criteria. They were divided into the following groups: advanced cancer/terminal illness/hospice patients (AC/TI/H) (7 studies); hastened death/assisted suicide/euthanasia patients (HD/AS/E) (14 studies); noncancer (NC) patients (3 studies). No chronic nonmalignant pain (CNMP) suffering studies fulfilled inclusion-exclusion criteria of this review. The reported prevalence of suffering for each study was abstracted and the overall percentage of sufferers in each grouping calculated. For those studies that provided a statistical relationship between pain and suffering information was abstracted for whether these studies supported/did not support the association of pain and suffering. A vote counting method was utilized to determine the overall percentage of studies supporting/not supporting this association. The consistency of this data for supporting this association was then rated by Agency for Health Care Research and Quality guidelines. Results: The prevalence of suffering in each grouping was as follows: AC/IT/H 45.7%; HD/AS/E 81.9%; NC 19.2%; and all groupings combined 59.9%. AC/TI/H and all groupings combined received an A rating (consistent evidence multiple studies for a statistical relationship between suffering and pain). HD/AS/E received a C (evidence which is inconsistent). For NC there were not enough studies for a consistency rating. Conclusions: The above results indicate a consistent association between suffering and pain in some patient groups. Studies addressing suffering are needed in CNPM patients.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1057-1072 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Pain Medicine (United States) |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 1 2015 |
Keywords
- Acute Pain
- Acute Pain Patients
- Assisted Suicide
- Cancer
- Chronic Pain
- Chronic Pain Patients
- Euthanasia
- Existential Suffering
- Hastened Death
- Mental Defect
- Mental Pain
- Pain
- Psychological Pain
- Review
- Suffering
- Terminal Illness
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Neurology
- Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine