Do Past Pain Events Systematically Impact Pain Ratings of Healthy Subjects or Fibromyalgia Patients?

Roland Staud, MD, FACP, FACR

Professor of Medicine
Department of Medicine
University of Florida College of Medicine
Gainesville, FL

Some experts have suggested that although visual analogue pain ratings are generally reliable for a given individual, comparisons between subjects may be confounded by differences among individuals in past pain experiences. For example, patients may adjust the perceived size of the scale to encompass their personal histories of painful events, a process referred to as elastic scaling. In this study, Dr. Staud and his colleagues have examined whether healthy subjects or patients with fibromyalgia use memories of past pain events during pain scaling. The results suggest that painful events, such as trauma or surgery, did not affect pain ratings on two electronic pain scales, which should simplify comparisons between subjects.

References

Staud R, Robinson ME, Price DD. Do Past Pain Events Systematically Impact Pain Ratings of Healthy Subjects or Fibromyalgia Patients? J Pain. 2010;11(2):142-148.
Price DD, Patel R, Robinson ME, Staud R. Characteristics of electronic visual analogue and numeric scales for ratings of experimental pain in healthy subjects and fibromyalgia patients. Pain. 2008;140:158-166.
Dionne RA, Bartoshuk L, Mogil J, Witter J. Individual responder analyses for pain: Does one pain scale fit all? Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2005;26:125-130.

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