title: Assessment and Management of Pain in Patients With Disorders of Consciousness.
abstract: Pain is a first-person experience that must be reported, verbally or nonverbally, to be correctly assessed. How, then, is pain perception determined in persons who are noncommunicative? This determination is a major clinical challenge because patients with disorders of consciousness are unable to communicate their feelings and possible pain experiences. This review will describe the current knowledge of evaluating pain perception in a minimally conscious state compared with an unconscious state (also known as vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome) and how to approach the management of pain in these 2 populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, University of California-Los Angeles, 300 Stein Plaza, Wasserman Building #554D, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schnakers
authors.affiliation: Concussion Care Centre of Virginia, Richmond, VA.|Tree of Life Services, Richmond, VA.|Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.|Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.|School of Health Sciences, Touro College, NY.
authors.forename: Nathan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zasler
mesh_terms: D003244:Consciousness Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement; D058748:Pain Perception