Use of the McGill Pain Questionaire in the assessment of cancer pain: Replicability and consistency

Abstract

The McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) is a recent empirically derived instrument designed to provide quantitative information on major dimensions of pain. Although widely used as an outcome measure in clinical research, little attention has been directed specifically at the instrument itself. The present study addressed this need. Detailed findings were obtained for both single and multiple administrations of the MPQ in two subject samples, each composed of 18 cancer outpatients in pain. These data were compared to similar, but less extensive, data reported by Melzack [6]. MPQ indices proved highly replicable over the two subject samples tested and were remarkably similar to the findings reported by Melzack for a different cancer pain patient sample. No differences were found between the written form of MPQ administration used in the present study and the oral procedure followed by Melzack. The consistency of pain descriptor subclass choice in the present samples was high, ranging from 66% to 80.4% over 4 administrations, and these values compare well with the value of 70.3% reported earlier by Melzack. However, the present subjects selected a larger set of pain descriptor words compared to the word set reported to be characteristic of cancer pain by Dubuisson and Melzack [2]. Both individual and group analyses indicated the MPQ is best used as a measure of immediate pain, and not as a summary measure of past pain over a defined period of time. These findings support the use of the MPQ as a reliable, multi-dimensional measure of immediate pain, and suggest the potential value of future research aimed at refining the psychometric properties of the instrument.

Pain evaluation of patients with fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and low back pain

“…It has been used in diverse clinical situations 4,5,6 and has proved reliable and effective at assessing pain. It might be objected that, in case a patient were not familiar with certain words, he or she might end up by choosing a descriptor merely for its being 'easier' or of more common usage.…”

“…The short form of the McGill Pain Questionnaire was designed to measure three different components of painsensory, affective, and evaluative 3 . It has wide acceptance, having proved to be sensitive at evaluating pain among patients with osteoarthritis 4 , vertebral discal hernia 5 , and cancer 6 .…”

Costs and Effectiveness of Extracorporeal Gallbladder Stone Shock Wave Lithotripsy Versus Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: A Randomized Clinical Trial

“…Criterion validity has been confirmed in terms of its concurrent, predictive and discriminative aspects. It takes an interviewer 15 to 20 minutes to administer il on a first occasion (189)(190)(191)(192)(193). …”

“…Postoperative pain was assessed by administering the McGiII pain questionnaire (189)(190)(191)(192)(193) within the first 24 hours following surgery, or prior to discharge home following lithotripsy. This index of pain has been shown to be sensitive in patients following cholecystectomy (9).…”

El cuestionario de dolor de McGill (McGill Pain Questionnaire -MPQ) : consideraciones lingüísticas y estadísticas

“…Evidentemente, la estructura factorial del MPQ todavía resulta algo incierta, ya que muchos estudios factoriales resultan insatisfactorios por muestras pequeñas y por el uso de una metodología pobre o inapropiada (véanse Fernandez y Turk, 1992;Holroyd et al, 1992). En relación con la fiabilidad, un estudio de Graham et al (1980) mostró que la consistencia en la elección de las subclases de descriptores del dolor iba del 66% al 80%, a partir de la cuarta administración del MPQ en pacientes de cáncer. Aunque existe claramente cierta consistencia en la elección de los descriptores verbales, las correlaciones de test-retest inmediato (coeficientes de confiabilidad-dado que el MPQ es una medida de estado) no se presentan y, por consiguiente, la fiabilidad de las subclases es todavía desconocida.…”