1. Evaluation of client-specific outcome measures and activity monitoring to measure pain relief in cats with osteoarthritis.
- Author
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Lascelles BD, Hansen BD, Roe S, DePuy V, Thomson A, Pierce CC, Smith ES, and Rowinski E
- Subjects
- Animals, Cat Diseases, Cats, Cross-Over Studies, Double-Blind Method, Female, Male, Meloxicam, Osteoarthritis complications, Pain drug therapy, Pain etiology, Pain Measurement methods, Quality of Life, Severity of Illness Index, Surveys and Questionnaires, Treatment Outcome, Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal therapeutic use, Osteoarthritis veterinary, Pain veterinary, Pain Measurement veterinary, Thiazines therapeutic use, Thiazoles therapeutic use
- Abstract
Background: There are no validated systems for measuring pain from osteoarthritis in cats., Hypothesis: Owner subjective assessments and an activity monitor (AM) can be used to detect pain in cats with osteoarthritis and to assess efficacy of treatments., Animals: Thirteen cats older than 10 years old, with owner-assessed decreases in activity, painful arthritic joints, and clinically normal blood work were included and evaluated for 3 weeks., Methods: A collar-mounted AM measured activity and a client-specific outcome measure (CSOM) questionnaire characterized the severity of impairment. Overall global quality of life was also evaluated for each treatment. In weeks 2 and 3, meloxicam (0.1 mg/kg, day 1; 0.05 mg/kg, days 2-5) or a placebo was administered in a blinded, randomized, cross-over manner to test the assessment systems., Results: The cats had a median of 4 arthritic appendicular joints. Activity counts for the week when cats (complete data on activity; n=9) were administered meloxicam were significantly higher than at baseline (P = .02) but not after placebo (P = .06). Baseline activity counts were not significantly different from placebo (P = .6). The CSOM data (n=13) showed that owners considered their cats to be more active on meloxicam compared with baseline (P = .001) and placebo (P < .004), and more active on placebo than at baseline (P < .01). Global quality of life improved significantly with meloxicam (P < .042)., Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Both an AM and a CSOM system can detect behavior associated with pain relief in cats that are arthritic. Objective activity data might allow subjective assessment systems to be validated for use in clinical studies.
- Published
- 2007
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