The influence of gender on the frequency of pain and sedative medication administered to postoperative patients

This study examines whether the frequency of pain and sedative medication administered to postoperative coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients differs according to patient gender. It was hypothesized that nurses medicate patients with pain medication more frequently if they are men than if they are women. It was also hypothesized that nurses medicate female patients with sedative medication more frequently than male patients. The hypotheses in this study were based on a review of the literature indicating that health care professionals hold stereotypic views of women as emotionally labile and more apt to exaggerate complaints of pain than men. The medication records of 30 male and 30 female patients between 44–71 years of age, who had undergone recent CABG surgery, were evaluated in this study. Male and female patients were matched on the basis of age, number of grafts completed in surgery, and location of graft donor sites. All data were obtained through the use of medical records to allow for control of patients' current and past medical history. The frequency of pain and sedative medication administered to these patients from 12 hours postop to 72 hours postop was compared. The results revealed that male patients were administered pain medication significantly more frequently than female patients, and that female patients were administered sedative medication significantly more frequently than male patients. Also, patients 61 years or younger received pain medication significantly more frequently than those patients 62 years and over.

[1]  C. L. Baeyer.  REPRESSION-SENSITIZATION, STRESS, AND PERCEPTION OF PAIN IN OTHERS , 1982 .

[2]  R. Newcombe,et al.  Does health education prevent childhood accidents? , 1984, Postgraduate medical journal.

[3]  L. Verbrugge,et al.  Sex differentials in health and mortality. , 1987, Health matrix.

[4]  M. Cunningham,et al.  Personality and the structure of the nonverbal communication of emotion. , 1977, Journal of personality.

[5]  L. Paul,et al.  Psychological and physiological mechanisms of pain. , 1977, Annual review of psychology.

[6]  M. Bond,et al.  Psychological aspects of pain in women with advanced cancer of the cervix. , 1969, Journal of psychosomatic research.

[7]  H. Parry,et al.  National patterns of psychotherapeutic drug use. , 1973, Archives of general psychiatry.

[8]  B. Lott.  Women's Lives: Themes and Variations in Gender Learning , 1987 .

[9]  J. Skelton,et al.  Duration of Pain Condition and Physical Pathology as Determinants of Nurses' Assessments of Patients in Pain , 1984, Nursing research.

[10]  W. Clark,et al.  Thermal pain: a sensory decision theory analysis of the effect of age and sex on d', various response criteria, and 50 per cent pain threshold. , 1971, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[11]  R. Kane,et al.  Physicians' Attitudes Toward Female Patients , 1981, Medical care.

[12]  J. Lanzetta,et al.  Vicarious instigation and conditioning of facial expressive and autonomic responses to a model's expressive display of pain , 1980 .

[13]  K. Craig.  Psychology of pain. , 1984, Postgraduate medical journal.

[14]  M. A. Lewis,et al.  The potential impact of sexual equality on health. , 1977, The New England journal of medicine.

[15]  Robert L. Helmreich,et al.  Masculine Instrumentality and Feminine Expressiveness: Their Relationships with Sex Role Attitudes and Behaviors , 1980 .

[16]  L. Verbrugge,et al.  Physician Treatment of Men and Women Patients: Sex Bias or Appropriate Care? , 1981, Medical care.

[17]  L. Schneiderman,et al.  Response of physicians to medical complaints in men and women. , 1979, JAMA.

[18]  Carl L. von Baeyer,et al.  Consequences of nonverbal expression of pain: patient distress and observer concern. , 1984, Social science & medicine.

[19]  R. Cooperstock.  Sex differences in the use of mood-modifying drugs: an explanatory model. , 1971, Journal of health and social behavior.

[20]  R. Melzack.  Behavioral methods for chronic pain and illness W.E. Fordyce, C.V. Mosby Company, St. Louis, Mo., 1976, ix + 236 pp , 1977, Pain.

[21]  L. Kenner,et al.  Ethnic and Sex Differences in Response to Clinical and Induced Pain in Chronic Spinal Pain Patients , 1984, Spine.

[22]  Notermans Sl,et al.  Sex difference in pain tolerance and pain apperception. , 1967 .

[23]  P. Goolkasian.  Phase and Sex Effects in Pain Perception: A Critical Review , 1985 .

[24]  R. Brotman,et al.  Female drug use: some observations. , 1976, The International journal of the addictions.

[25]  P. Slade,et al.  Attitudes to female roles, aspects of menstruation and complaining of menstrual symptoms. , 1980, The British journal of social and clinical psychology.

[26]  L. Verbrugge.  Sex differentials in health. , 1982, Public health reports.

[27]  R. Buck,et al.  Sex, personality, and physiological variables in the communication of affect via facial expression. , 1974, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[28]  C. Chapman,et al.  New directions in the understanding and management of pain. , 1984, Social science & medicine.

[29]  Morris F. Collen,et al.  Pain tolerance: differences according to age, sex and race. , 1972 .

[30]  C. Nathanson.  Illness and the feminine role: a theoretical review. , 1975, Social science & medicine.