Articles: pain-measurement.
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The pain drawings of 54 low-back-pain patients were examined to find out if it is possible to use them as a brief screening test in order to assess the psychological impairment of the patients. We were using the scoring system of Ransford et al, which we slightly changed, and chose as a criterion variable the ERMSS (Erweiterte Revidierte Mehrdimensionale Schmerzskala) of Cziske. ⋯ A correlation was found between pain drawing score and the sensory-discriminative dimension of pain perception, whereas there was no such correlation between drawing score and the affective dimension. These results indicate that the pain drawing score might not be a sufficiently valid instrument for assessing psychological disturbances in pain patients to allow it to be used for individual diagnosis without hesitation.
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J. Neurosci. Methods · May 1988
The automated measurement of hindlimb flexor reflex of the rat as a substitute for the tail-flick assay.
A new method for the study of stimulation-produced analgesia is introduced. The hindlimb flexor EMG, in response to noxious electrical stimulation of the paw, is used as an indirect index of analgesia induced by electrical stimulation at different brain sites. ⋯ The high repetition rate allows a rapid determination of the threshold current intensities or the brain stimuli required to suppress the hindlimb withdrawal. The test is objective, avoids skin damage and sensitization and can be performed semi-automatically when implemented with a small PC.
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Test-retest reliability of a pain drawing instrument was investigated. Pain drawings of chronic pain patients (n = 51) were scored for percentage of total body surface in pain and location of pain. ⋯ The effect on reliability of age, gender and time-interval differences was investigated. The utility of the pain drawing instrument as a measure of extent of pain and location of pain over time is discussed.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Apr 1988
Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical TrialPain intensity measurements in patients with acute pain receiving afferent stimulation.
Six different pain rating scales, including a "pain relief scale", were compared in 80 patients suffering acute orofacial pain. Pain intensity measurements were made before and after a 30 min period of afferent stimulation (TENS/vibration and placebo). ⋯ The verbal rating scale did not perform well. The pain relief scale and the numerical rating scale are interesting alternatives to the established visual analogue scale.
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Pain drawings were obtained from two groups of patients and one of nonpatients, in a total of 264 subjects, all suffering from back pain. The pain drawings were rated in four grades according to the degree of nonorganic and extended pain. ⋯ A correlation was also found to ethnic background and social situation but not to alcohol abuse or psychiatric illness. Pain drawings afford an important clue to nonorganic factors in the assessment of back pain.