The fifth vital sign--what does it mean?
Acute pain is reported as a presenting symptom in over 80% of physician visits. Chronic pain affects an estimated 76.2 million Americans--more than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined. It has been estimated to be undertreated in up to 80% of patients in some settings. Pain costs the American public more than $100 billion each year in health care, compensation, and litigation. That's why pain was officially declared "The Fifth Vital Sign." Henceforth the evaluation of pain became a requirement of proper patient care as important and basic as the assessment and management of temperature, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and heart rate. The numeric pain scale certainly has a place in care and in pain management; however, it is important to assess the patient's communication and self-management style and to recognize that patients, like pain, are on a continuum with varied styles of communication and adaptation. It is easy to get lost in the process, even when the process is initiated with the best of intentions. In the quest for individualized medicine, it might be best to keep pain assessment in the individualization arena.
Walid
Mohammad Sami
MS
Research Fellow, Medical Center of Central Georgia, Macon, Georgia 31201, USA. mswalid@yahoo.com
Donahue
Stephen N
SN
Darmohray
Dana M
DM
Hyer
Leon A
LA
Robinson
Joe Sam
JS
D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D010147:Pain Measurement