[An integrated method of pain measurement based on Tursky's pain perception profile, for use in patients with progressive systemic sclerosis]

Abstract

Tursky's pain perception profile [16] has been revised and adapted for use in German-speaking conditions, and this new modification is presented. It integrates six different methods of clinical and experimental methods of clinical and experimental pain measurement, which are intended to meet the enhanced demands put forward in pain research for multivariate measurement of pain by a variety of methods. The methods used are: (1) classification of three pain-related descriptive statements as they apply to the individual case; (2) use of these descriptive statements to keep a record in the form of a pain diary; (3) experimental determination of thermal pain thresholds; (4) determination of the behavior expressing the perception of thermal pain; (5) determination of sensitivity to pain by means of a standardized system for the estimation of the magnitude of thermal stimuli; and (6) in parallel with determination of the pain threshold and estimation of the magnitude of the stimulus, derivation of peripheral physiological parameters and the formulation of conclusions about the individual's way of handling pain. The various methods of investigation are presented, and results obtained with them in patients with chronic pain and in healthy volunteers are compared. The results document the many aspects of chronic pain and the necessity for multimodal measurement. In addition, they supply a means of achieving a better pain-related classification of pain patients on an experimental basis.