Survey Results of Pain Treatments in Youths with Cerebral Palsy

The purpose of this study was to identify current interventions used in the pediatric population to decrease cerebral palsy (CP)-related pain by surveying children with CP and their parents in two focus areas: first, regarding pain related to CP and second, interventions sought in conjuncture with CP-related pain symptoms. The first portion of this study centers on if the child had CPrelated pain in the last three months and location of the worst reported pain. The second portion of this study reports what interventions have been used, how often these interventions were administered, if the intervention is still being used, and how helpful each intervention is perceived to have been. 62 children, 29 females and 39 males, with a medical diagnosis of CP that were between the ages of 8-21 and 98 parent respondents participated in this study in two waves of data collection. The results of the data indicated parent reports of pain in the last three months in 77 of the 98 parent respondents and 41 of the 62 child respondents with more pain reported in the head (46%), neck (44%), and chest (28%) areas and the worst pain locations reported in the legs (26%), feet (21%), back (13%), and knees (13%). The most sought and still used interventions included Tylenol (74%, 77%), physical/occupational therapy (73%, 72%), braces/orthotics (67%, 50%), and stretching (67%, 90%). These interventions were rated between 3.67 and 5.0 on a 5-point scale of perceived effectiveness. This study presents four main findings from this data: that youths with CP feel pain related to CP symptoms throughout their bodies, that the main pain locations for the most severe pain are located in the lower extremity, that interventions with higher rated perceived helpfulness are used less frequently then interventions with moderate ratings on the perceived helpfulness scale, and that the pain reported interferes with the child’s number of daily activities. These findings are significant in that knowing what is perceived to be helpful can assist in guiding medical professionals to recommend interventions and provide base information for future studies to expand on effective interventions to decrease pain in youths with CP.