Individuals with impaired bowel and bladder control reported lower quality of life on several domains compared with those with independent control of bowel and bladder. Though the two groups did not differ in self-reported social integration, dependent individuals may have greater difficulty creating new social relationships.

Objectives: To determine the predictive utility of verbal descriptors to distinguish between pain types following spinal cord injury (SCI). Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: USA. Methods: Participants (n=29) completed the Short Form ± McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) for each pain site reported. A total of 64 pain sites were reported with 80% of the sample reporting multiple pain sites. Each pain site was categorized using three di erent SCI pain classi®cation schemes. The predictive utility of verbal descriptors to distinguish between pain types was examined statistically using (1) each word separately, (2) a combination of words (ie, the SF-MPQ total subscales, the number of words chosen on each scale), and (3) discriminant function analysis.Results: There was a substantial overlap in the use of verbal descriptors across pain types. Few di erences across pain types were found for endorsement of individual words, and di erences across pain types were not found for any of the word combination scores. The majority of the verbal descriptors did not enter the step-wise discriminant functions for each SCI pain classi®cation scheme, however,`tingling' and`aching' showed modest predictive utility for neuropathic and musculoskeletal pain, respectively. Correct classi®cation was in the low range (ie, 39% to 82%, average=60%, with a 33% chance level). All three pain classi®cation schemes showed the same general pattern of results. Conclusion: In general, verbal descriptors alone o ered marginal utility with regard to identifying speci®c pain types following SCI. Future directions alone and implications are discussed.