Pain from sickle-cell crisis.

A qualitative questionnaire survey was carried out to identify the perceptions and expectations of pain management of patients with sickle-cell disease, and of nurses. The study illustrates that the present sample of nurses contributed to the poor pain control of sickle-cell patients because of their misconceptions about narcotic addiction, inadequate formal pain assessment and their neglect of attention to the psychosocial implications of this chronic disease.