Use of methadone as an alternative to morphine for chronic pain management: a noninferiority retrospective observational study.

Introduction: Chronic pain causes disability and is prevalent in the general population. Opioids are a part of a multimodal strategy for pain management. Methadone, a cheap and long-acting synthetic opioid, may represent an option for those who have limited access to the aforementioned class of analgesics.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation for the Brazilian population of the instrument Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis-Specific Quality of Life-Short Form (ALSSQOL-SF).

Objective: This study aims to produce and validate the version of the instrument Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis-Specific Quality of Life-Short Form (ALSSQOL-SF) into Portuguese, adapted to the Brazilian cultural context.

Methodology: It is a cross-cultural adaptation and validation study, carried out in two Brazilian Public Universities, in the period from March, 2017, to November, 2018, according to the six steps guidelines of cultural and linguistic adaptation proposed by Beaton et al. (Spine 25(24):3186-3191, 2000).

Comfort level of caregivers of cancer patients receiving palliative care.

Objective: To verify the association between the level of comfort of the caregiver and socio-demographic variables related to caregiving, and the patient's functional status and symptoms.

Method: Cross-sectional study with non-probabilistic intentional sample. The instruments Palliative Performance Scale (score 0 to 100%), Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (symptom scores from zero to ten) and Holistic Comfort Questionnaire (total score ranging from 49 to 294 and mean score from 1 to 6) were used.