Pain Treatment in Persons with Cerebral Palsy

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Abstract
Engel JM, Kartin D, Jensen MP: Pain treatment in persons with cerebral palsy: Frequency and helpfulness. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2002;81:291–296. Objectives To identify the interventions currently being used by adults with cerebral palsy (CP) for pain management, examine the perceived helpfulness of these interventions, and determine the extent to which these individuals with cerebral palsy–related pain were accessing the services of healthcare providers for the explicit purpose of addressing pain. Design Retrospective, descriptive study of 64 adults with cerebral palsy–related chronic pain. Subjects ranged in age from 18 to 76 yr and included 35 women and 29 men. Subjects were evaluated by using a protocol-based interview. Results The study sample sought and used a variety of pain treatments and healthcare providers and rated many of the interventions as being at least moderately helpful. Despite the reported helpfulness of the pain interventions, however, most are only being used by a small subset of the sample. Conclusion The majority of the sample with chronic pain did not access healthcare providers for help in managing their pain. Cerebral palsy–related pain is undertreated in the adult population with cerebral palsy.