Pain
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Chronic eye pain, which has previously been assumed to be due to ocular surface abnormalities (ie, "dry eye [DE] disease"), has recently garnered attention as a potential indicator of neuropathic ocular pain in some patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a modified version of the Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory in individuals with eye pain (NPSI-Eye). Enrolled participants (n = 397) completed the NPSI-Eye, general pain severity questionnaires, DE symptom report, and psychological health indices. ⋯ Individuals who reported little or no decrease in pain after anesthetic eye drops (hypothesized to indicate eye pain with at least partial central involvement) had significantly higher NPSI-Eye scores than participants whose eye pain was completely relieved by anesthetic (P < 0.05). Overall, our results support preliminary validation of the NPSI-Eye, yielding similar metrics to those reported in Bouhassira et al.'s original NPSI publication (2004). However, additional evaluation and refinement of some questions may be desirable, including the potential elimination of items that were not highly endorsed.
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Chronic or persistent pain is a growing global health problem. Effective management of pain emerging in childhood may prevent long-term health and vocational consequences. Internationally, paediatric pain services are a limited resource and, as such, must strive to improve equity, outcomes, and value for money. ⋯ Opioid-containing medicines were used often or daily by 16%. Patients completing outcome measures at treatment end reported clinically significant improvement in pain intensity (49% of patients), functional ability (59%), and quality of life (69%). The PaedePPOC initiative has been successfully integrated into children's pain services, yielding timely point-of-care information to support clinicians and families, and valuable binational and service data to inform quality improvement and future sector planning.