Mood State and Quality of Sleep in Cancer Pain Patients: A Comparison to Chronic Daily Headache

Cancer pain is commonly believed to be a unique type of pain and dissimilar to noncancer pain; however, only limited research efforts have been directed at examining this belief. The aim of this study was to explore whether patients with chronic daily headache (CDH) and patients with chronic cancer pain (CCP) present with different pain, mood, and sleep quality profiles. Forty-seven patients diagnosed with CDH were matched by age and gender with 47 patients with CCP. The research instruments included the Brief Pain Inventory-Chinese version, the Profile of Mood States Short Form, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index-Taiwan Form (PSQI-T). Results revealed that there was no difference in pain intensity between the patients with CDH and those with CCP; however, the CCP group reported significantly higher mean levels of pain interference with daily life than did the CDH group. These two groups did not differ on the Total Mood Disturbance score; however, the CCP group reported significantly lower mean levels of vigor than did the CDH group. Moreover, there was no difference on the PSQI-T total score between these two groups; however, the CDH group reported higher mean scores of sleep disturbance, higher mean scores of use of sleep medications, lower mean scores of sleep efficiency, and lower mean scores of daytime dysfunction than did the CCP group. Despite some differences between these two groups, pain, mood, and sleep quality profiles in these two types of pain groups are similar.