Intérêts et limites des échelles d’évaluation de la douleur chez l’enfant en situation de handicap

Accessing to a management of pain is now considered as peoples’ fundamental right. The pain should be evaluated before being treated. Pain is always a subjective phenomenon. Assessing pain of those who express in a singular way is a great challenge. Children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities, with cerebral palsy or with autism are now recognized as sensitive to pain as well as anyone. If some of them are able to use self-report tools, we have to apply disability-adapted scales to others. Like any assessment tools, they have advantages and limitations. We need to know them in order to make appropriate use for the care of vulnerable people.