Palliative Care Medicine, Oncology Centre, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, P O Box 365636, Riyadh 11393, Saudi Arabia.
Support Care Cancer. 2012 Dec;20(12):3137-40. doi: 10.1007/s00520-012-1443-6. Epub 2012 Mar 24.
Suffering is an expression commonly used to describe distressing experience of cancer patients. Suffering experience among patients with advanced cancer has not been studied before in Saudi Arabia.
The objective of this study is to determine the pattern of suffering and the feasibility of measuring its severity on a numerical scale for cancer patients attending a palliative care outpatient clinic.
This is part of a larger survey studying the pattern of symptomatology in an outpatient palliative care clinic. Over a 5-month period, cancer patients attending an outpatient palliative care clinic were requested to rate their suffering as well as 11 listed symptoms on a 0-10 numerical scale.
Of the 124 patients interviewed, 73 (59 %) were females. Only 15 patients (12 %) reported no suffering. For those who were suffering (88 %), the median score is 5. Suffering scores did not differ based on sex, age, or type of cancer. Patients with a Palliative Performance Scale of ≤50 % had significantly higher mean suffering score (6.8) compared to those with better performance status (4.8; P = 0.003). Multivariate analysis resulted in three independent variables showing a significant relationship to suffering score, namely pain (P = 0.018), tiredness (P = 0.022), and depression (P = 0.022).
Patients with advanced cancer were able to easily rate their suffering on a numerical scale. Pain, tiredness, and depression were associated with the suffering scores. Suffering scores might help in tracing the trend of suffering in the individual patient over time.
痛苦是一种常用于描述癌症患者痛苦经历的表述。在沙特阿拉伯，之前尚未研究过晚期癌症患者的痛苦体验。
本研究旨在确定在姑息治疗门诊就诊的癌症患者的痛苦模式，并确定在数字量表上衡量其严重程度的可行性。
这是一项更大规模的研究，旨在研究门诊姑息治疗诊所中症状模式的一部分。在 5 个月的时间内，要求姑息治疗门诊的癌症患者对其痛苦以及 11 种列出的症状在 0-10 的数字量表上进行评分。
在接受采访的 124 名患者中，有 73 名（59%）为女性。只有 15 名患者（12%）报告没有痛苦。对于那些正在痛苦的患者（88%），中位数评分为 5。痛苦评分与性别、年龄或癌症类型无关。Palliative Performance Scale 得分≤50%的患者的平均痛苦评分（6.8）明显高于表现状态较好的患者（4.8；P=0.003）。多变量分析得出了三个独立变量，它们与痛苦评分有显著关系，即疼痛（P=0.018）、疲倦（P=0.022）和抑郁（P=0.022）。
晚期癌症患者能够轻松地在数字量表上对其痛苦进行评分。疼痛、疲倦和抑郁与痛苦评分相关。痛苦评分可能有助于跟踪个体患者随时间的痛苦趋势。
