We might say that the questions to answer are: how much does it hurt? And how much am I suffering?
Tools have been developed dealing with different aspects of pain that are not independent and are therefore difficult to separate. Health professionals tend to underestimate their patients’ pain and to avoid this problem, tools are available which help record the painful experience reported by the patient in the most objective way possible. Of course, the extent and quality of the damage determines the pain, but this is modulated by the individual’s previous experience of pain and his emotional state at the time, hence the need to assess each case. However, in order to treat pain we need to evaluate it objectively, so we can tell society, sufferers and specialists what medicine can be administered or the best way to combat pain. We assume that the sensation of pain is subjective and therefore the only person capable of knowing the pain one suffers is the individual oneself. The effect of analgesic drugs is evaluated in clinical trials subject to strict rules in order to compare the effect of the medication with that produced by substances without analgesic activity. Pain is a subjective sensation, so to objectify its intensity different types of scales are used whereby the patient can indicate the degree of pain being treated.
0 kommentar(er)
