Introduction:

Cancer is ranked as the third cause of death in Mexico. Cancer patients have pain and disturbances in sleep quality.

Purpose:

To evaluate sleep´s quality in patients with cancer pain.

Materials and methods:

The study compared two groups. Group A, cancer pain patients (n = 30), and Group B, healthy subjects (control group) (n = 30). Demographics, sleep quality (using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI), somnolence (Epworth Questionnaire), pain intensity (using the visual analogue scale [VAS] and verbal rating scale [VRS]), depression and anxiety (using the Beck questionnaires) were considered as variables.

Results:

Pain cancer patients reported mean pain intensity (VAS) of 4 ± 1. Patients with advanced cancer reported higher pain intensity. In Group A the PSQI reported a score of 10 ± 5, in Group B the PSQI had a score of 6 ± 3 (p = 0.002). Somnolence reported significant differences (p = 0.01).

Conclusions:

Our results suggest a relationship between sleep disorders, cancer pain and cancer stage.

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