Was that painful or non-painful? The Sensation and Pain Rating Scale (SPARS) performs well in the experimental context

Pain intensity is best assessed by self-report. Clinicians and researchers attempt to capture another's pain using cross-modality matching tasks in which pain is matched to a rating scale.31 Numerical rating scales (NRS) and visual analogue scales (VAS) anchored at opposite extremes with ‘no pain’ and something akin to ‘most intense pain you can imagine’ are widely used, and have evidence for being robust assessments of pain in clinical and experimental contexts.8 Indeed, for both of these scale types, the stimulus-response relationship has been described by a classical psyc hophysical power relationship, and the VAS has been said to have ratio properties.

Source: The Journal of Pain - November 1, 2018 Category: Materials Science Authors: Victoria J Madden, Peter Kamerman, Valeria Bellan, Mark J Catley, Leslie N Russek, Danny Camfferman, G Lorimer Moseley Tags: Original Reports Source Type: research