Assessing pain in ‘traffic light’ system benefits cancer patients

DOCTORS should use traffic light bedside charts when assessing the amount of pain being suffered by patients, a study has suggested.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh worked with doctors treating cancer patients to develop what is known as the Edinburgh Pain Assessment and management Tool (EPAT) – a pen-and-paper chart that medical staff used to regularly record pain levels in a traffic-light system.

In the trial, which looked at pain levels in almost 2,000 cancer patients over five days, amber or red pain levels – indicating moderate or severe pain – prompted doctors to review medications and side effects and monitor pain more closely.

The researchers said patients whose care included use of the chart reported less pain during the trial, compared with patients with standard care, who did not show an improvement.

However, the chart was not linked to higher medicine doses. Instead, the study suggested it works by encouraging doctors to ask the right questions and reflect on pain medications and side effects before a “crisis point”.

Prof Marie Fallon, of the palliative and supportive care group at Edinburgh, said: “These findings are a positive step towards reducing the burden of pain for patients and making them as comfortable as possible at all stages of cancer.”

The study, which was funded by Cancer Research UK, is published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.