Health and Quality of Life Outcomes BioMed Central Research Open Access Effects of chronic widespread pain on the health status and quality of life of women after breast cancer surgery Carol S Burckhardt* and Kim D Jones Address: Primary Care, School of Nursing, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA Email: Carol S Burckhardt* - burckhac@; Kim D Jones - joneskim@ * Corresponding author Published: 28 April 2005 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2005, 3:30 doi: Received: 01 March 2005 Accepted: 28 April 2005 This article is available from: © 2005 Burckhardt and Jones; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under. | BioMed Central Health and Quality of Life Outcomes Research Open Access Effects of chronic widespread pain on the health status and quality of life of women after breast cancer surgery Carol S Burckhardt and Kim D Jones Address Primary Care School of Nursing Oregon Health Science University Portland Oregon USA Email Carol S Burckhardt - burckhac@ Kim D Jones - joneskim@ Corresponding author Published 28 April 2005 Received 01 March 2005 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2005 3 30 doi 1477-7525-3-30 Accepted 28 April 2005 This article is available from http content 3 1 30 2005 Burckhardt and Jones licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http licenses by which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background Most research and treatment of post-breast cancer chronic pain has focused on local or regional pain problems in the operated area. The purpose of this pilot study was to compare and contrast the pain characteristics symptom impact health status and quality of life of post-breast cancer surgery women with regional chronic pain versus those with widespread chronic pain. Methods A cross-sectional descriptive design compared two groups of women with chronic pain that began after surgery regional pain n 11 and widespread pain n 12 . Demographics characteristics of the surgery as well as standardized questionnaires that measured pain Brief Pain Inventory BPI Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire MPQ-SF disease impact Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire FIQ Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast FACT-B health status Medical Outcomes Short Form SF-36 and quality of life Quality of Life Scale QOLS were gathered. Results There were no significant differences between the groups on any demographic or type of surgery variable. A .
