Effectiveness of Therapeutic Education in Patients with Cancer Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Cancer persists as a major cause of global suffering and burden, with breast, lung and colorectal cancer leading the statistics. Cancer pain, influenced by various factors and varying in intensity, significantly affects patients, being a crucial marker related to survival and quality of life. The objective of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of pain education in those patients with pain derived from an oncological process. There is evidence that a pain education program for cancer patients can decrease mean and present pain intensity at least in the medium term, although it does not appear to affect worst reported pain. ABSTRACT: (1) Objective: To review the existing evidence on pain education in patients with pain derived from an oncological process. (2) Methods: A systematic review was conducted using the databases Pubmed, Web of Science, PEDro, and Scopus. The selected studies had to incorporate instruction about the neurophysiology of pain into their educational program. The target population was cancer patients who had suffered pain for at least one month. The methodological quality of the articles collected was assessed using the PEDro scale. (3) Results: Some 698 studies were initially identified, of which 12 were included in this review. Four different models of pain education programs were found in the studies’ interventions. Pain intensity, pain experience, quality of life, pain tolerance, and catastrophism were the variables that appeared most frequently. (4) Conclusions: This review demonstrates that pain education in patients with cancer pain may produce effects such as decreased pain intensity and catastrophism. Knowledge about pain also seems to increase. However, no benefit was reported for patients’ overall quality of life. Therefore, more research is needed to clarify the effects of these interventions on the oncology population.