title: [How painful is intensive insulin therapy?].
abstract: Injection-pain was assessed in 39 type-1 diabetic patients in relation to an insulin injection (with an insulin-pen) into the upper arm, the abdomen, and the thigh and in another 10 patients, pain associated with finger-pricking for blood-glucose self-monitoring was assessed. Pain perception was recorded on a visual analogue scale. According to the results, injections were relatively painless with an average (median) pain-score of less than 10% of maximum pain. Injection pains varied in relation to the injection sites (upper arm greater than thigh greater than abdomen). Least painful (n = 44) versus most painful (n = 39) injections were distributed as follows: upper arm 20% vs. 46%, abdomen 43% vs. 23%, thigh 36% vs. 31% (chi 2 7.26, df2, p less than 0.05). Finger-pricking was no more painful than injecting insulin. It is concluded that insulin injecting (e.g. with insulin pens) and blood glucose self-monitoring in general is not very painful. However, if this positive conclusion also applies to long-term performance of intensive insulin therapy remains to be proven.
authors.affiliation: Medizinische Abteilung für Ernährung und Stoffwechsel, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf.
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007279:Injections, Subcutaneous / Q000523:psychology; D007328:Insulin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D007328:Insulin
vernacular_title: Wie schmerzhaft ist die intensive Insulintherapie?