[Quality assurance in therapy of chronic pain. Results obtained by a taskforce of the German Section of the Association for the Study of Pain on psychological assessment of chronic pain. V. Instruments for the assessment of pain-related cognitions and coping with pain]

Abstract

The present paper is one of a series of publications, reviewing German instruments for psychological assessment of pain. Their main focus is on the results of a task force on quality testing for each subject. This paper describes and comments on methods regarding self-reporting of pain cognitions and both cognitive and behavioral strategies for coping with pain. Concerning pain cognitions one focus is on patients' attributions of causes of pain and the modes of controlling pain (subjective pain model). The other focus is on instruments recording "pain beliefs" in the sense of dysfunctional congitions associated with the experience of pain. Each instrument was examined with reference to approved psychometric criteria, empirical foundation and clinical relevance. It was noted that several instruments are deficient in their psychometric criteria and their empirical foundations. We used these data as a basis to elaborate a specific and differential recommendation. A similar procedure was followed with instruments for the assessment of pain-related coping strategies. According to our research there are two subgroups of coping instruments, one more specifically for cognitive coping with pain, and the other combined with behavioral coping strategies. Once again, we elaborated a specific and differential recommendation, giving priority to instruments taking account of both cognitive and behavioral dimensions of coping with pain.