Visiting researcher Yoichi Tanaka and Professor Shu Morioka of the Kio University Neurorehabilitation Research Center revealed that the results of a 3-day evaluation of the circadian rhythm of pain generally agreed with the results of a 7-day evaluation.
The circadian rhythm of pain refers to fluctuations in pain sensitivity over a 24-hour period. It is important to understand the pain circadian rhythm of chronic pain patients in order to provide educational interventions to improve their daily living activities and quality of life while managing their own pain. It is.
On the other hand, the conventional evaluation period for the circadian rhythm of pain has been 7 days, and it has been seen as a problem that it has not been established as a standard evaluation due to the heavy burden on patients. Therefore, in this study, we verified the validity of a 7-day evaluation compared to a 3-day evaluation in order to examine whether it is possible to shorten the circadian rhythm evaluation period for pain.
The study included community-dwelling patients with chronic pain. To assess the circadian rhythm of pain, pain was evaluated at six time points: upon waking, 9:00, 12:00, 15:00, 18:00, and 21:00, over a period of seven days. Cluster analysis was performed using the pain scores at these six time points, and the degree of agreement between the classifications based on 3-day evaluations (Tuesday-Thursday, Friday-Sunday, Sunday-Tuesday) and the classifications based on 7-day evaluations was examined using the kappa coefficient.
The results showed that the 3-day period from Friday to Sunday had the highest degree of agreement with the 7-day evaluation. Next, the results for the three days from Tuesday to Thursday were generally consistent with the seven-day evaluation. However, the degree of agreement decreased over the three days from Sunday to Tuesday. From the above, it is clear that even when the circadian rhythm of pain is evaluated over a 3-day period, the results generally match those obtained from a conventional 7-day evaluation, but the degree of agreement varies depending on the specific day of the week. It was also shown that this occurs.
Shortening the evaluation time for circadian rhythms of pain is expected to contribute to establishing clinical evaluations and improving patient satisfaction through early intervention. The results of this study are believed to contribute to the development of effective pain management that takes pain rhythm into account.
Paper information: [Journal of Pain Research] Can the Assessment of the Circadian Rhythm of Pain Be Shortened? A Study of Community-Dwelling Participants with Chronic Pain
