BJA Advance Access published online on March 5, 2004
British Journal of Anaesthesia, doi:10.1093/bja/aeh123
© 2004 by The Board of Management and Trustees of the British Journal of Anaesthesia
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1 Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical Center, Box 3094, Durham, NC 27710, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gan00001{at}mc.duke.edu.
Background. Optimal treatment for acute pain is a function of an individual’s willingness to make trade-offs between treatment side effects and pain control. The objective was to investigate the degree to which patients are willing to make these trade-offs. Methods. Fifty patients undergoing major abdominal surgery were enrolled and completed interviews before and after surgery. Measures included an experience with pain questionnaire and an adaptive conjoint analysis (ACA) interview. Results. Percentage of pain relief obtained post-surgery was between 70 and 80%. Eight-two per cent reported at least one moderate or severe side effect. ACA results demonstrated that pain efficacy and side effect type/severity have almost equal ‘importance’ scores. Patients varied in their willingness to trade-off pain efficacy for different or milder side effects. Conclusions. We conclude that people have different relative preferences for different side effects and are willing to trade-off pain relief for less upsetting and/or less severe side effects but to different degrees. Thus, physicians should consider offering pain medications with fewer side effects than narcotics as a first choice. Our study indicates the need to balance analgesia and side effects in order for patients to achieve optimal pain control.
Clinical Investigation
Patient preferences for acute pain treatment
2 Department of Anesthesiology, University of Miami School of Medicine, PO Box 016370, Miami, FL 33101, USA
3 MEDTAP International, Inc., 7101 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 600, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA
4 RTI Health Solutions, 3040 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA
5 Pfizer, Inc., 235 East 42nd Street, 235/4/78, New York, NY 10017, USA
6 Pharmacia Corporation, 5200 Old Orchard Rd., Tower I, 3rd floor, Skokie, IL 60077, USA
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