title: Pain measurement and experience.
abstract: Issues and developments in clinical pain assessment will be considered. The focus will be on measuring pain, rather than degree of relief. Three main response channels may be distinguished: subjective, behavioral and physiological, although the latter will not be elaborated upon here. The measurement of subjective report of pain, although an anathema to behaviorists, continues to be one of the most widely used measures. Recent developments in assessing verbal report, of the form of questionnaires and ratings derived from psychophysical scaling methods, will be reviewed. Although behavioral indices at first sight lend themselves to well-established methods of measurement, issues in establishing rather than assuming the reliability and validity of such measures will be considered. Parallel monitoring across response channels, as well as attending to questions concerning the psychometric adequacy of measures employed, will both further our understanding of pain mechanisms and provide sound indications as to treatment efficacy.
mesh_terms: D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology