Strategy to Cope Pain and Discomfort in Mammography

Summary

Most of the women complain about the pain and discomfort during the mammography procedure. It is reported in the literature that most of the time these pain and discomfort are due to anxiety-related causes. During counseling before mammography scan, it was also observed that most of the women had a general belief that mammography is a very painful procedure and they have a negative perception about mammography. Thus, the Majority of pain seems due to anxiety-related issues. Studies also support this evidence and it is reported in the literature that most of the women avoid mammography scans due to this negative perception which causes delay and ultimately a late diagnosis. To validate the exact nature of pain and discomfort during mammography and to find out the strategy to cope with this anxiety-related pain and discomfort, there is a dire need for a study that can address this problem. Additionally, in our setup, most of the women who came for mammography are illiterate and belonged to the low socio-economic status. In these women, due to the negative perception, refusal or withdrawal rate is higher for mammography scans. A thorough literature search has revealed studies on this issue are scarce both nationally and internationally. In the current study, Paracetamol will be used as a possible intervention which is the safest premedication for reducing pain while achieving standard compression which is necessary for good image quality. Thus, this study can help develop a strategy to control mammography discontinuation due to pain and discomfort.

Timeline

Start

2019-11-21

Primary completion

2020-09-14

Completion

2020-11-20

Publications

• Results Freitas-Junior R, Martins E, Metran-Nascente C, Carvalho AA, Silva MFD, Soares LR, Ximenes CA. Double-blind placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial on the use of paracetamol for performing mammography. Medicine (Baltimore). 2018 Mar;97(13):e0261. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000010261.
• Rahim A, Rasheed B, Adil SO, Naz N, Aslam N. Effective strategy to cope the pain and discomfort among women undergoing mammography - A randomized controlled trial. Pak J Med Sci. 2023 Sep-Oct;39(5):1422-1428. doi: 10.12669/pjms.39.5.7500.

Drugs

Indications