Developing a comparative scale of different nociceptive and neuropathic pain through two psychophysical methods

Abstract

The general aim of this study was to create a comparative scale of different types of pain through different psychophysical methods and different samples. The psychophysical methods used were magnitude estimation and category estimation. The participants were 30 patients from different outpatient clinics, 30 physicians and 30 nurses. The results were: 1) cancer pain, myocardial infarction pain, renal colic, burn-injury pain, and labor pain were considered more intense, regardless of the psychophysical method used or sample studied; 2) The ranking of different pain intensities, comparing the different psychophysical methods used, resulted in significant agreement levels with Kendal values close to 1.00; 3) There were divergences in the perception of the intensities of some types of pain. These divergences were especially observed between professionals and patients.