[Current data on the exploration and the evaluation of clinical pain].
Pain is a complex, multidimensional and multifactorial neuropsychological phenomenon with sensory-discriminative, affective, cognitive and behavioral components. Issues on pain assessment are related to the objective evaluation of a subjective phenomenon. Different levels of evaluation are to be considered. Some methods like visual analogue scale, numerical scale and verbal permit a global pain estimation. The aim of other methods like the McGill Pain Questionnaire is a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the sensory and affective pain components. The measure of objective behavioral changes is an interesting approach, but at the present time there is no valid, simple and commonly used method. There is also a need for methods permitting a better exploration of a pain, and in particular a selective evaluation of organic and functional factors. The limits of psychological factors evaluation are reported.
Boureau
F
F
Centre d'Evaluation et de Traitement de la Douleur, Hôpital Saint-Antoine, Paris.
D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*
Données actuelles sur l'exploration et l'évaluation de la douleur clinique.