Neonatal Pain Scales: NIPS, CRIES, PIPP and COMFORTneo
Guide to neonatal pain scales: NIPS, CRIES, PIPP/PIPP-R and COMFORTneo, with clinical context, status and evidence.
Before comparing
Choice depends on gestational age, pain type, care setting and validated version. PedsCore shows which scales have local calculation and which remain reference-only.
Included tools
- Neonatal Infant Pain Scale — Observational neonatal pain scale.
- CRIES — Neonatal pain scale based on five domains.
- Premature Infant Pain Profile — Neonatal pain scale, especially for preterm infants.
- Premature Infant Pain Profile-Revised — Revised version of PIPP.
- COMFORTneo — Multidimensional neonatal sedation and pain scale.
Evidence and context
The comparison is intended to clarify differences in population, purpose, variant and availability. It does not imply equivalence between scores or recommend one tool over another.