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Abstract

Introduction: Pain is a very common symptom in Palliative Care, and a multidimensional approach is important. Currently, there are several scales that allow the assessment of isolated components of pain, but no tool for assessing total pain, resulting in a gap in this area. This study aimed to develop a total pain assessment protocol and subsequently assess its prevalence.
Methodology: Development of a total pain assessment protocol, applied to patients present in the Palliative Care Unit between January and February 2022. Formulation of a self-completion questionnaire, based on six validated scales (numerical pain scale, faces scale, McGill scale, HADS scale, FACIT-PAL scale and FACIT-SP-12 scale), with the aim of evaluating the presence of total pain (physical, emotional, social and spiritual). The presence of each of the aforementioned domains was assessed using descriptive statistics, medians, interquartile ranges and Spearman's correlation coefficient.
Conclusion: The presence of physical pain was verified in 100% of users on the numerical scale and in 91.7% on the face scale. According to the McGill scale, everyone indicated some degree of physical pain, and 83.3% some degree of psychological pain. Using the HADS scale, it can be seen that 75% had psychological pain. According to the FACIT-PAl and FACIT-Sp-12 scales, everyone presented some degree of social and spiritual pain. Finally, considering the presence of total pain in the presence of some degree of all types of pain, this was observed in the majority. This protocol represents a useful tool in clinical practice and for future studies.