title: The use of pain drawings in screening for psychological involvement in complaints of low-back pain.
abstract: 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. This test originates in the McGill Pain Questionnaire of Melzack and Torgerson; its scales describe four dimensions of pain perception: pain intensity, the sensory-discriminative dimension reflecting the somatic aspect of pain; the affective-motivational dimension, and the total number of words, both representing the psychological involvement of a pain patient. 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.
authors.affiliation: Pain Clinic, Institute of Anesthesiology, University of Göttingen.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hildebrandt
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Franz
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Choroba-Mehnen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Temme
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001416:Back Pain / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods; D010465:Perception; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012677:Sensation