Do you see my pain?
Status: On going
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Recognizing and properly assessing pain in a timely manner is crucial. To reliably and validly measure pain in adults with severe mild to moderate (SAD), we are developing a pain observation scale as part of the “Do You See My Pain?” project.
Reliably Measuring Pain
To develop an observation scale, we first wanted to determine whether it is possible to reliably observe pain behaviors. This has proven to be complex. Therefore, an instructional protocol for observing behaviors that may indicate pain was developed in four separate phases. Reliability was found to be sufficient for 12 different pain behaviors, indicating that the developed protocol is sufficiently useful.
APOS-PIMD
We then examined which of these 12 pain behaviors together effectively measured pain. Ultimately, nine pain behaviors together formed a reasonably robust scale for measuring pain in adults with severe mild to moderate (SAD) in everyday situations. This observation scale is called the APOS-PIMD: Adult Pain Observation Scale for people with Profound Intellectual Disabilities. Currently, during the “Do You See My Pain?” project, we are further investigating whether the APOS-PIMD can actually distinguish between situations in which pain is and is not expected. We are also investigating whether the APOS-PIMD improves its pain detection by adding a clinical assessment in the form of the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS, a numerical pain scale). This scale is standardly linked to several other observation scales, such as the REPOS and CPG, which, among others, formed the basis for the APOS-PIMD. We do not yet know whether linking would be beneficial for the APOS-PIMD.
For practice
Healthcare professionals will receive a tool to identify and assess pain in adults with intellectual disabilities.
And then there will be the practical products. I refer to three of these in the text above.
About the researcher
What is your role within the Academic Collaborative Centre related to people with PIMD?
I am conducting PhD research on the adequate identification of pain in adults with PIMD. During this research, we have developed a new pain assessment instrument: the APOS-PIMD. We want to make this measurement instrument sufficiently reliable and valid so that it can be used in daily practice.
What do you hope to achieve?
My ambition is that the timely identification and treatment of pain becomes an integral part of the daily support of adults with PIMD, so that their quality of life can be significantly improved in this way.
Research projects by Annemieke binnen de AW-EMB