Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2003
Hypogonadism and sexual dysfunction in male cancer survivors receiving chronic opioid therapy.
The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of central hypogonadism and sexual dysfunction in male cancer survivors exposed to chronic high-dose oral opioid therapy. We studied 20 male patients with cancer-related chronic pain who were disease-free for at least one year. All patients consumed at least 200 mg-equivalent of morphine on a daily basis for at least one year. ⋯ The mean solitary sexual desire score was 1.3+/-1.9 (normal value, 10.6+/-1.9). Our data suggest that chronic exposure to high-dose oral opioid therapy may result in marked central hypogonadism and sexual dysfunction. Given the increasing use of long-term opioid therapy for chronic pain syndromes, further investigation into these findings is warranted.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2003
Are nurses prepared to manage cancer pain? A national survey of nurses' knowledge about pain control in Taiwan.
Nurses play a crucial role in cancer pain control, but little is known about how well-prepared nurses are to manage cancer pain in Taiwan. The purpose of this study was to examine the level of knowledge about pain management among Taiwanese nurses with different background characteristics and to determine the predictor(s) of nurses' pain management knowledge. Nurse subjects were recruited by a cross-sectional nationwide survey with stratified sampling from nine hospitals distributed in the four major geographic regions of Taiwan. ⋯ Nurses who worked in intensive care units, however, had significantly lower mean correct scores. The results strongly suggest an urgent need to strengthen pain education in Taiwan. The results also provide the direction for developing pain education.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2003
The problem of assessment bias when measuring the hospice effect on nursing home residents' pain.
This study examined the observed differential documentation of pain on nursing home (NH) resident assessments (minimum data sets [MDS]) when dying residents were and were not enrolled in hospice. We studied 9,613 NH residents who died in 6 states in 1999 and 2000. ⋯ However, hospice residents were twice as likely as non-hospice residents and 1.3 times as likely as residents who eventually enrolled in hospice to have pain documented. These counterintuitive findings suggest that there is differential documentation of pain on the MDS when hospice is involved in care, perhaps because of superior pain assessment by hospice.