BIAS EFFECTS IN 3 COMMON SELF-REPORT PAIN ASSESSMENT MEASURES

Objective: Past research has shown response biases to influence the ac curacy of results from self-report measures. In pain assessment, where a percentage of patients have financial and other reasons to minimize or exaggerate psychological disturbance, it becomes especially import ant to identify the influence of response bias in self-report of adjus tment. This study investigated the susceptibility of three commonly us ed self-report pain assessment measures to response bias. Design: This study used a within-subjects (asymptomatic subjects) design with two experimental conditions and nonequivalent control group (chronic pain patients). Subjects: Experimental group: 40 students enrolled in an oc cupational therapy program at a major southeastern United States unive rsity. Control group: 200 subjects referred to a multidisciplinary pai n clinic at a major teaching hospital. Measures: Coping Strategies Que stionnaire, Multidimensional Pain Inventory, and Pain Beliefs and Perc eptions Inventory. Results: With few exceptions, asymptomatic subjects scored significantly differently on these measures while portraying t hemselves as either coping well or coping poorly. In addition, when us ing the ''coping poorly'' response set, asymptomatic subjects reproduc ed scores similar to those of symptomatic chronic pain patients. Concl usion: The susceptibility to manipulation appeared constant across the three measures, a finding that highlighted the difficulties clinician s and researchers encounter in accurate interpretation of results from these measures in the absence of validity indicators. This study also emphasizes the ease with which subjects with sufficient motivation ca n present themselves in an untruthful and manipulative manner and can generate scores that are, on their own, difficult to distinguish from those of a group of typical chronic pain patients.