title: The Descriptor Differential Scale of Pain Intensity: an evaluation of item and scale properties.
abstract: Improved methods for pain measurement have both theoretical and clinical importance. This study evaluated the Descriptor Differential Scale (DDS) of Pain Intensity, a recent methodology designed for assessing pain reports in clinical samples. Experiment 1 evaluated the sensitivity of the measure to small changes in electrocutaneous stimulation relative to a traditional visual analogue scale (VAS) of pain intensity. Additionally, direct psychophysical scaling methods were employed to determine ratio-scale values for the DDS sensory items in relation to the electrocutaneous stimuli. This ratio scale was cross-validated by comparison with previously published ratio-scaled data from cross-modality matching pain intensity judgement studies. Experiment 2 evaluated the performance of the measure in both experimental and clinical pain samples, as well as the similarity of item-response patterns in each of these samples. Results indicate that the DDS of Pain Intensity is sensitive to small changes in electrocutaneous stimulation, has consistent ratio-scale properties across two different psychophysical methods, and demonstrates similar item-response patterns across divergent experimental and clinical samples. The results support the validity of the sensory DDS as a measure of pain intensity.
authors.affiliation: San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center, USA University of California, San Diego, CA 9216, USA University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego, CA 92161, USA.
authors.forename: Jason N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Doctor
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Slater
authors.forename: Hampton J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Atkinson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D004561:Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation