What patients with abdominal pain expect about pain relief in the emergency department.
BACKGROUND
Abdominal pain is the leading cause of patient visits to the emergency department. Although patients present to the emergency department in search of relief from pain, few experience complete pain relief. The purpose of this study was to describe patients' expectations for pain relief and how communication of their pain to nurses and physicians affected their overall pain relief.


METHODS
Questionnaires were completed by patients who reported abdominal pain and by their primary nurse and physician. Numeric rating scales were used to rate pain intensity from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst possible pain) and actual and expected pain relief (0 = no pain relief, 10 = complete relief).


RESULTS
Forty-four percent of patients reported that they expected complete relief of their abdominal pain. Over 98% of the patients told a provider that they were in pain, but only 33.3% asked for pain medication. No significant differences were found between the patients who asked for pain medication and those who did not in patients' expectation scores or relief scores.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study showed that patients with abdominal pain have high expectations for pain relief; however, their expectations were not associated with their tendency to ask for pain medication or report actual relief of pain.
Yee
Alisa M
AM
Department of Surgery, University of California, San Francisco Medical Center at Mt. Zion, San Francisco, CA, USA. amyag98@itsa.ucsf.edu
Puntillo
Kathleen
K
Miaskowski
Christine
C
Neighbor
Martha L
ML
D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002140:California; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations
D000700:Analgesics