Evaluation of Client-Specific Outcome Measures and Activity Monitoring to Measure Pain Relief in Cats with Osteoarthritis

• Published in: Journal of veterinary internal medicine 2007-05, Vol.21 (3), p.410-416
• Main Authors: Lascelles, B.D.X, Hansen, B.D, Roe, S, DePuy, V, Thomson, A, Pierce, C.C, Smith, E.S, Rowinski, E
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activity; Animals; Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal - therapeutic use; Cat Diseases; Cats; Cross-Over Studies; Degenerative joint disease; Double-Blind Method; Feline; Female; Male; Meloxicam; osteoarthritis; Osteoarthritis - complications; Osteoarthritis - veterinary; Owner; pain; Pain - drug therapy; Pain - etiology; Pain - veterinary; Pain Measurement - methods; Pain Measurement - veterinary; Quality of Life; Severity of Illness Index; Subjective assessment; Surveys and Questionnaires; therapeutics; Thiazines - therapeutic use; Thiazoles - therapeutic use; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 0891-6640; 1939-1676
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1939-1676.2007.tb02983.x

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.