Study finds sleep deprivation affects physician perception of patient pain

A recent international study from the University of Missouri School of Medicine and researchers in Israel found that sleep-deprived doctors show less empathy for patient distress and that this impression affects their prescribing behaviours. Study finds sleep deprivation affects physician perception of patient pain The findings of the research were published in the journal 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'. "Pain management is a major challenge, and a doctor's perception of a patient's subjective pain is susceptible to bias," said co-author David Gozal, MD, the Marie M. and Harry L. Smith Endowed Chair of Child Health at the MU School of Medicine. The study found the physicians' propensity to prescribe analgesics to patients presenting with severe pain during the night shift was 11 per cent lower in Israel and 9 per cent lower in the U.S. "The fact that the divergence of analgesic prescription from the general World Health Organization guidelines is greater during night shifts suggests that there is indeed an under-prescription during night shifts, rather than an over-prescription during the daytime," Gozal said. Other co-authors included Tom Gordon-Hecker, PhD; Shir Ganzer and Salomon Israel from Hebrew University; David Rekhtman and Ido Sadras, MD, from Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center; and Eugene M. Caruso, PhD; associate professor at UCLA.