Psychosocial distress in patients treated for cancer pain: a prospective observational study.

Introduction: Untreated emotional distress negatively impacts the management of cancer pain.

Objectives: The authors evaluated 64 patients with cancer pain who completed baseline and follow-up measures to identify if (1) measures of psychosocial wellbeing, pain intensity, and pain management were associated with survival time; (2) higher opioid doses were associated with less psychosocial distress; and (3) intrasubject correlations across time altered the relationship between pain, depression, social support, spirituality, and increased desire for hastened death (DHD).

Methods: The main outcome measures included the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), Daily Morphine Equivalent Dose (DMED), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), DHD scale, Bottomley Social Support Scale, FACIT Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp), Karnofsky Performance Rating Scale (KPRS), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).