Evidence map›Paper›PMID 18578562›Full record

ArticlePLoS medicine2008

How well do clinical pain assessment tools reflect pain in infants?

Rebeccah Slater, Anne Cantarella, Linda Franck, Judith Meek, Maria Fitzgerald

Open access · goldAbstract readEvaluation Study
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS medicine, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
60citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
24.8field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

60 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 229 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Impact of breast milk on cortical pain response in newborns during the heel prick procedure: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2024
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  11. Pain and heart rate variability in neonates receiving dexmedetomidine.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2024
    Article
  12. A comparison of the effect of procedural pain on cerebral oxygen saturation between late preterm and term infants.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2024
    Article
  13. Review
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  15. Article
  16. Observational
  17. Dairy Buffalo Behavior: Calving, Imprinting and Allosuckling.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022
    Review
  18. Review
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Rebeccah SlaterDepartment of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, University College London, London, United Kingdom. r.slater@ucl.ac.uk
Anne Cantarella
Linda Franck
Judith Meek
Maria Fitzgerald
University College London · GB

Funding

Medical Research Council G0502146Wellcome Trust
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPain in infancy is poorly understood, and medical staff often have difficulty assessing whether an infant is in pain. Current pain assessment tools rely on behavioural and physiological measures, such as change in facial expression, which may not accurately reflect pain experience. Our ability to measure cortical pain responses in young infants gives us the first opportunity to evaluate pain assessment tools with respect to the sensory input and establish whether the resultant pain scores reflect cortical pain processing. METHODS AND

findingsCortical haemodynamic activity was measured in infants, aged 25-43 wk postmenstrual, using near-infrared spectroscopy following a clinically required heel lance and compared to the magnitude of the premature infant pain profile (PIPP) score in the same infant to the same stimulus (n = 12, 33 test occasions). Overall, there was good correlation between the PIPP score and the level of cortical activity (regression coefficient = 0.72, 95% confidence interval [CI] limits 0.32-1.11, p = 0.001; correlation coefficient = 0.57). Of the different PIPP components, facial expression correlated best with cortical activity (regression coefficient = 1.26, 95% CI limits 0.84-1.67, p < 0.0001; correlation coefficient = 0.74) (n = 12, 33 test occasions). Cortical pain responses were still recorded in some infants who did not display a change in facial expression.

conclusionsWhile painful stimulation generally evokes parallel cortical and behavioural responses in infants, pain may be processed at the cortical level without producing detectable behavioural changes. As a result, an infant with a low pain score based on behavioural assessment tools alone may not be pain free.

Indexed as

Cerebral CortexFacial ExpressionHeelHemodynamicsHumansInfantInfant BehaviorInfant, NewbornPainPain MeasurementResearch Design

Identifiers

PMID18578562
PMCPMC2504041
OpenAlexW2117276082

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.