How reliable is pain as the fifth vital sign?

Verbal Reports on the Contents of Consciousness Reconsidering Introspectionist Methodology

Doctors must now take a fifth vital sign from their patients: pain reports. I use this as a case study to discuss how different schools of psychology (introspectionism, behaviorism, cognitive psychology) have treated verbal reports about the contents of consciousness. After examining these differences, I suggest that, with new methods of mapping data about neurobiological states with behavioral...

The ‘fifth vital sign’

Pain is one of the most common symptoms, regardless of the specialty in which a patient is being treated. It should be routinely evaluated and recorded in daily clinical examination. In fact, pain has been promulgated as the ‘fifth vital sign’, in addition to the four traditional vital signs of temperature, pulse, blood pressure, and respiratory rate. As well as improving patient comfort and sa...

Pain as the fifth vital sign: will cultural variations be considered?

Musculoskeletal Pain- Moving from Symptoms and Syndromes to Mechanisms

Pain is defined by International Association for the Study of Pain 1 as; “An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.” Pain is often considered the fifth vital sign, but often misinterpreted since it is considered mainly subjective. 2 Pain relief is a major goal for health care in India so much that most...

Analgesic Effect of Distraction during Venipuncture in Children with Thalassemia

Background: Pain is described as the fifth vital sign, and inadequate pain management is linked to numerous immediate and long-term negative outcomes. Venipuncture is one of the most painful medical procedures in children. Distraction is one of the most effective ways to relieve pain. Reducing patients’ pain is important for all nurses for many reasons. Unnecessary pain can damage the nurse-...