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BMC Palliative Care
Published in: BMC Palliative Care 1/2015

Open Access 01-12-2015 | Research article

The relationship between pain management and psychospiritual distress in patients with advanced cancer following admission to a palliative care unit

Authors: Ya-Ping Lee, Chih-Hsun Wu, Tai-Yuan Chiu, Ching-Yu Chen, Tatsuya Morita, Shou-Hung Hung, Sin-Bao Huang, Chia-Sheng Kuo, Jaw-Shiun Tsai

Published in: BMC Palliative Care | Issue 1/2015

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Abstract

Background

Although many cross-sectional studies have demonstrated the association between cancer pain and psychospiritual distress, the time-dependent relationship has not been fully explored. For that reason, this study aims to investigate the time-dependent relationship between psychospiritual distress and cancer pain management in advanced cancer patients.

Methods

This is a prospective observational study. Two hundred thirty-seven advanced cancer patients were recruited from a palliative care unit in Taiwan. Demographic and clinical data were retrieved at admission. Pain and psychospiritual distress (i.e.: anxiety, depression, anger, level of family and social support, fear of death) were assessed upon admission and one week later, by using a “Symptom Reporting Form”. Patients were divided into two groups according to the pain status one week post-admission (improved versus not improved groups).

Results

One hundred sixty-three (68.8 %) patients were assigned to the improved group, and 74 (31.2 %) patients were assigned to the not improved group. There were no differences in the psychospiritual variables between groups upon admission. In overall patients, all psychospiritual variables improved one week post-admission, but the improvement of depression and family/social support in the not improved group was not significant. Consistent with this, for depression scores, there was a statistically significant pain group x time interaction effect detected, meaning that the pain group effect on depression scores was dependent on time.

Conclusions

We demonstrated a time-dependent relationship between depression and pain management in advanced cancer patients. Our results suggest that poor pain management may be associated with intractable depression. The inclusion of interventions that effectively improve psychospiritual distress may contribute to pain management strategies for advanced cancer patients.
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Metadata
Title
The relationship between pain management and psychospiritual distress in patients with advanced cancer following admission to a palliative care unit
Authors
Ya-Ping Lee
Chih-Hsun Wu
Tai-Yuan Chiu
Ching-Yu Chen
Tatsuya Morita
Shou-Hung Hung
Sin-Bao Huang
Chia-Sheng Kuo
Jaw-Shiun Tsai
Publication date
01-12-2015
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Palliative Care / Issue 1/2015
Electronic ISSN: 1472-684X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-015-0067-2

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