The aim of the investigation was to evaluate the prevalence, severity, and parents' management of children's pain following short-stay and day surgery. The subjects were 189 parents of children (2-12 years of age) who had undergone short-stay or day surgery. Parents completed a 3-day diary of their child's pain and the methods used to alleviate it. There were clear differences in pain reported according to type of surgery. Some surgery, such as insertion of myringotomy tubes, appeared to cause little pain. Other procedures, including tonsillectomy, circumcision, and strabismus repair, resulted in about one-half the children experiencing clinically significant pain (> or = 30 mm on a 100 mm VAS). Sixty-eight percent of the parents reported they had been instructed to use acetaminophen for pain 'if necessary', 13% had been told to use acetaminophen regularly, and 8% recalled no instructions. Of the parents who rated their child's pain as significant, 13% administered no pain medication and 47% gave 1-3 doses on day 2. On day 3, 17% gave no medication and 45% gave 1-3 doses. Some types of 'minor' surgery result in significant pain postoperatively. Even when parents recognise that their children are in pain, most give inadequate doses of medication to control the pain.

Studies on physicians', patients', and the public's attitudes toward using opioid pain medications in adults have shown that negative attitudes are associated with decreased prescription/use of opioids in the treatment of moderate to severe pain. Most of the pain that children experience is managed by parents, yet little is known about parents' attitudes toward using medication to treat children's pain. A 20-item scale was developed to examine mothers' attitudes to using acetaminophen to treat children's pain. During a structured telephone interview, 298 mothers responded to the attitude scale items. Mothers also responded to questions concerning their medicating behaviors. Mothers were concerned about tolerance and side effects from acetaminophen. Principal components factor analysis on the acetaminophen scale extracted four factors which accounted for 59% of the variance in responses. Mothers with more positive attitudes toward acetaminophen were more likely to medicate for common childhood pains and would give medication at lower levels of pain than would mothers with less positive attitudes. However, the moderate internal reliability of the attitude subscales somewhat limits the generalizability of these findings. Further scale development will be necessary in order to clarify mothers' attitudes and the relationship between their attitudes and behaviors. Studies using different pain contexts, and using fathers and older children and adolescents as respondents, will add to our understanding of attitudes toward using medication for children's pain.

This community‐based telephone survey determined medication patterns of 274 frequent headache sufferers who reported 12 or more headaches a year Headaches were classified using the International Headache Society's (IHS) criteria. Participants reported on 465 types of headaches: 129 tension headaches, 158 migraine headaches, 8 chronic tension headaches, and 148 headaches which were unclassifiable using IHS criteria. Females (n=133) reported an average of 1.9 types of headache and males (n=141) reported 1.5 headache types. Fifty‐six percent of respondents used acetaminophen for tension‐type and 6O% used acetaminophen for migraine. One percent used prescription medication for tension headache and 12% used prescriptions for migraine. The perceived effectiveness of over‐the‐counter medication was approximately 7 on a scale of 0–10 for tension headaches and 6 for migraine. Both tension‐headache and migraine‐headache sufferers waited about 1 h before taking any medication. Tension‐headache sufferers waited until the headache was above 5 on a 0 to 10 scale (4.6 for migraine). It is possible that more aggressive use of medication might improve headache management.

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