Brief Pain Inventory (BPI)
Link
- Access the Brief Pain Inventory in PDF format
Type
- Discriminative of pain severity
- Evaluative
Description
- Allows rapidly but comprehensively assessment of pain severity and the impact of pain on daily functions.
- A key measure in ePPOC.
- Monitors change in both pain intensity and pain interference with many aspects of a person's life throughout a treatment program. (MDC = 1/10, MCID = 2+/10) This is sensitive to the initial severity and the individual circumstances.
Advantages
- Simple to score. Two scores are for pain severity and pain interference.
- Widely validated and extensively used in diverse research and clinical settings.
- IMMPACT recommendations for assessing clinical significance for 0-10 numeric pain scales:
- Change of ≥10% represents minimally important change.
- Change of ≥30% represents moderate clinically important change.
- Change of ≥50% represents substantial clinically important change.
Precautions or limitations
- None of note.
Pain Self Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ)
Link
- Access the Pain Self Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ)
Type
- Discriminative of severity
- Evaluative
Description
- Measures confidence of a person with persistent pain to do a range of activities while in pain.
- A key measure in ePPOC.
Advantages
- Establishes what treatments may be required while planning treatment.
- Uses individual item responses to open a discussion and education session with a client
- Evaluates the effect of treatment over time. MCID = 7 points combined with movement to a different severity band.
- Available in many languages.
- Easy to score. Severity bands are:
- <20 = severe
- 20 to 30 = moderate
- 31 to 40 = mild
- >40 = minimal impairment
Precautions or limitations
- Unlike most outcome measures, an increase in score is an improvement.
Pain Catastrophising Scale (PCS)
Link
- Access the Pain Catastrophising Scale (PCS)
Type
- Discriminative of severity of pain catastrophising
- Evaluative
- Predictive of persistent pain, disability and a poor return to work outcome
Description
- Measures a person's thoughts and feelings related to their pain that are likely to impact on their outcome.
- A key measure in ePPOC.
Advantages
- Establishes what treatments may be required while planning treatment. For example, a client with a high score (>30) may need to progress quickly to multidisciplinary management.
- Uses individual item responses to open a discussion and education session with a client.
- Evaluates the effect of treatment over time. MCID = 6 points combined with a movement to a different severity category.
- Severity bands for the PCS are:
- <20 = mild
- 20 to 30 = high
- >30 = severe
Precautions or limitations
- Care needs to be taken to introduce the concept of catastrophising cautiously with a client, as it can sound stigmatising if used inappropriately. See article on pain catastrophising.
Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK)
Link
- Access the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK)
Type
- Evaluative
- Predictive
Description
- Measures unhelpful thoughts and beliefs about pain and movement that represent a fear of movement (kinesiophobia) and are likely to impact a person’s outcome.
Advantages
- Can be used as an alternative to the Pain Catastrophising Scale in some clients to:
- help establish what treatments may be required while planning treatment. For example, a client with a high score (>36) may need to progress quickly to multidisciplinary management
- use individual item responses to open a discussion and education session with a client
- evaluate the effect of treatment over time
- Has 2 subscales: an activity avoidance subscale and a somatic focus scale. These can provide additional information to the clinician to help direct management.
Precautions or limitations
- There is no response category to allow respondents to “neither agree or disagree,” which may result in answers skewed in one direction or the other.
Self report Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs Scale (s-LANSS)
Link
Type
- Discriminative for neuropathic and nociceptive pain
- Evaluative
Description
- Useful for clinicians developing competency in diagnosing neuropathic components to pain presentations.
Advantages
- Can be used as both an assessment checklist for neuropathic pain and to monitor a response to treatment over time.
- Quick and easy to use and score.
- This version can be completed by the client without the clinician present, unlike the LANSS which includes some aspects of physical examination.
Precautions or limitations
- Although the cut-off score for diagnosing neuropathic pain is 12/24, some people scoring around this level may be incorrectly classified as either having or not having neuropathic components to their pain presentation.
painDETECT
Link
- Access the painDETECT
Type
- Discriminative for neuropathic pain components in adults with low back pain
Description
- Useful for clinicians developing competency in diagnosing neuropathic components to pain presentations.
- Can be used as an assessment checklist for neuropathic pain and to assist in choosing appropriate therapy.
Advantages
- Can be done online, including scoring and interpretation. Clients can do this at home and print results.
Precautions or limitations
- When tested in people with fibromyalgia, the questionnaire demonstrated only a 46% positive predictive value, indicating that the painDETECT may not be suitable for use in other conditions.