Pain Intensity and Pain Science

Last updated: Sat, Feb 22, 2025

Measuring pain severity.....

The emphasis on pain intensity: what is it? Its displacement of other aspects of pain, esp. time-related and stress-related. This emphasis could be the result of the emphasis of pain science on curing pain: More intense pain is more useful in identifying pain generators; more intense pain is assumed to be more unpleasant or to have more serious consequences to the patient.

The existence of anchored variations on VAS speak to problems with the measure.

Reasons for clinical popularity: could be related to a desire to avoid discussing it.

Problems with the dominant use of 'pain intensity level':

• Denies subjective experience
• Avoids talking about pain
• Abandons natural language
• Seems to emphasize a physiological view of pain at the expense of affective aspects
• No one knows what patients are really reporting about

Prohibitions in treatment agreements about communicating hotly about pain.