BioPsychoSocial
Assessment Tools for the Elderly - Assessment Summary Sheet
Test: McGill
Pain Questionnaire (MPQ)
Year:
1975
Domain:
Biological, Psychological
Assessment
Tool Category: Pain
Variations/Translations:
Several variations including McGill-Melzack
Pain Questionnaire, the McGill Pain Assessment Questionnaire,
McGill Comprehensive Pain Questionnaire, and the Dartmouth Pain
Questionnaire. A short form includes only 15 words. There are
versions in most European languages, Arabic, Mexican Spanish and
French Canadian French.
Assessment
Setting: Clinical
Method of
Delivery: Self-administered
questionnaire
Description:
The MPQ was designed to provide a quantitative
profile of three aspects of pain. The method was originally was in
evaluating pain therapies; its use as a diagnostic aid has also
been described. The complete MPQ comprises section recording the
patient’s diagnosis, drug regimen, medical history
concerning pain, present pain pattern, accompanying symptoms and
modifying factors, effects of pain and a list of 102 words
describing pain (20 categories and the part of instrument most
often used).
Scoring/Interpretation:
Four scoring methods have been proposed: 1) Sum
of the scale values for all the words chosen in a given category
or across all categories (range from 0 to 1.00); 2) Like previous,
but replacing scale values with a code indicating rank placement
of each word within its class; 3) Number of words chosen; or 4)
present pain intensity (PPI) score on a 0 to 5 scale from the pain
description section of the questionnaire.
Time to
Administer: 15-20 minutes
Availability:
Available as appendix in reference below.
Software: N/A
Website: N/A
Quantitative/Qualitative:
Quantitative
Validity
(Quantitative): PPI score does not
agree closely with other scores. The factors tend to
intercorrelate highly (0.64-0.81).
Reliability
(Quantitative): Test-retest
reliability giving average consistency of 70.3%. The extent of
correlation between sensory and affective scores varies according
to the type of pain being considered (0.51 to 0.85).
References:
Melzack, R.
(1975). The McGill Pain Questionnaire: major properties and
scoring methods. Pain,
1, 277-299.
Comments:
A
limitation of using verbal descriptors is people’s use of
pain language is not necessarily sufficiently consistent for the
MPQ to diagnose types of pain. Some of the words reflect both a
type and intensity of pain – factor analysis may extract
type of pain or intensity of pain factors or both.
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