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

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare pain as reported by outpatients with fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and low back pain, in view of designing more adequate physical therapy treatment.Patients and Methods: A Portuguese version of the McGill Pain Questionnaire -where subjects are asked to choose, from lists of pre-categorized words, one or none that best describes what they feel -was used to assess pain intensity and quality of 64 patients, of which 24 had fibromyalgia, 22 had osteoarthritis, and 18 had low back pain. The pre-categorized words were organized into 4 major classes -sensory, affective, evaluative, and miscellaneous.Results: Patients with fibromyalgia reported, comparatively, more intense pain through their choice of pain descriptors, both sensory and affective; they also chose a higher number of words from these classes than patients in the other groups and were the only ones to choose specific affective descriptors such as "vicious", "wretched", "exhausting", "blinding".Conclusion: Assuming that each disease presents unique qualities of pain experience, and that these can be pointed out by means of this questionnaire by patients' choice of specific groups of words, the findings suggest that fibromyalgia include not only a physical component, but also a psycho-emotional component, indicating that they require both emotional/affective and physical care. DESCRIPTORS: Pain. Chronic pain assessment. Fibromyalgia. McGill Pain Questionnaire. Physical Therapy.

Multidimensional features of pain in patients with chronic neck pain

“…Those with chronic pain present mechanical and often-behavioral changes that facilitate the perpetuation of pain due to associated affective difficulties (29). In our study, the main dimension observed was sensory, when compared with the affective dimension seen by Marques et al (26). Nevertheless, emotional factors such as work-related stress are risk factors for chronic neck pain, and the interference of pain in these aspects can be inferred by the words chosen in the affective category (30).…”

“What do you expect? You're just getting older”: A comparison of perceived osteoarthritis‐related and aging‐related health experiences in middle‐ and older‐age adults

“…Rather than focus only on the quality or intensity of symptoms, as is assessed in many pain measures (45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51), participants also emphasized the frequency, duration, and unpredictability of pain because these dimensions were tied to decisions about whether to perform activities. Moreover, relevant to future research and clinical assessment was that there was no consistent experience of OA pain quality, a finding similar to other studies (47,48). OA participants of all ages reported a vast range of pain descriptors not linked to the location of their disease.…”

Efeitos da pompage associada ao exercício aeróbico sobre dor, fadiga e qualidade do sono em mulheres com fibromialgia: um estudo piloto

“…In our study, adding pompage to therapy with stretching exercises and AE for 12 weeks improved only one of the pain aspects evaluated by the McGill Questionnaire (mixed aspects of pain) and for PRI no significant difference was found. The easy understanding of the words of mixed aspects may have collaborated to this, while the lack of familiarity with the words of the other aspects of the questionnaire may have made difficult choosing the most appropriate word, compromising evaluation 20 . AE beneficial effects on pain and FM are already well described in the literature 21 .…”