Two patients on your unit have returned from right knee arthroscopies. Patient A is reporting pain of an eight to nine on a zero-to-ten pain scale. Patient B is reporting a pain level of three to four on the same pain scale
What may provide a rationale for the different perceptions of pain?
A) Endorphin levels may vary between patients, affecting the perception of pain.
B) One of the patients is exaggerating her sense of pain.
C) The patients are likely experiencing a variance in vasoconstriction.
D) One of the patients may be experiencing opiate tolerance.
Ans: A
Feedback: The existence of enkephalins and endorphins helps explain why different people feel different amounts of pain from similar stimuli. Endorphin levels vary among individuals as do factors that influence endorphin levels, such as anxiety. People with more endorphins feel less pain; those with fewer endorphins feel more pain. Opioid tolerance is associated with chronic pain treatment and would not apply to this patient. The nurse should not assume the patient is exaggerating the pain as the patient is the best authority of her existence of pain, and definitions for pain state that pain is "whatever the person says it is, existing whenever the experiencing person says it does."
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