Elsevier

The Journal of Pain

Volume 13, Issue 12, December 2012, Pages 1250-1257
The Journal of Pain

Original Report
Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of the Revised Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2012.09.011Get rights and content
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Abstract

The recently revised version of the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ-2) was created to assess both neuropathic and non-neuropathic pain. The current study extends prior research by testing the reliability and validity of the SF-MPQ-2 in a sample of U.S. veteran patients with a range of chronic pain diagnoses. Participants (N = 186) completed the SF-MPQ-2, a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV, and self-report pain and psychiatric measures. Pain diagnoses were extracted from the electronic medical record. The SF-MPQ-2 total and scale scores demonstrated good-to-excellent internal consistency. Convergent and discriminant validity were supported, and SF-MPQ-2 total and scale scores increased with number of pain diagnoses and pain severity. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a 4-factor model fit the data better than a single-factor model. However, high intercorrelations among the 4 latent constructs were observed, and a second-order global pain construct also emerged. Overall, the SF-MPQ-2 demonstrated excellent reliability and validity in a sample of U.S. veteran patients with chronic neuropathic and non-neuropathic pain. Future psychometric studies of the SF-MPQ-2 should employ longitudinal data to evaluate the ability of scale scores to uniquely predict clinical and health service outcomes.

Perspective

This article presents the psychometric properties of a revised version of the SF-MPQ-2. This measure may have great utility as a screening tool in clinical practice and as an outcome measure in clinical trials.

Key words

Chronic pain
McGill Pain Questionnaire
psychometric
reliability
validity

Cited by (0)

This material is the result of work supported with resources and the use of facilities at the Portland VA Medical Center. This study was supported in part by award K23DA023467 from the United States National Institute on Drug Abuse to Dr. Morasco. Dr. Turk has received research support from Endo, Johnson & Johnson, Philips Respironics, and the National Institutes of Health, and consulting fees from Eli Lilly, OrthoMcNeill- Janssen, Pfizer, Philips Respironics, and SK LifeScience. He is also a Special Government Employee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. No other author reports having any potential conflict of interest. The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the National Institute on Drug Abuse.