BIOBEHAVIORAL PAIN PROFILE - DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES

Although a number of self-report indices that measure intensity and ps ychosocial components of the pain experience are available, these meas ures do not assess the range of cognitive, behavioral, and physiologic al reactions frequently associated with pain. This paper describes the initial determination of the psychometric properties of the Biobehavi oral Pain Profile (BPP) developed to measure these reactions. The BPP is a 41-item self-report scale tested in a sample of 617 subjects with chronic recurrent pain, chronic non-malignant pain or chronic maligna nt pain. Kaiser's measure of sampling adequacy was 0.918. Factor analy sis revealed 6 theoretically meaningful factors: Environmental Influen ces, Loss of Control, Health Care Avoidance, Past and Current Experien ce, Physiological Responsivity, and Thoughts of Disease Progression. C ronbach's alpha scores for the specific subscales ranged from r = 0.77 to r = 0.94. Test-retest reliability for the scales ranged from 0.57 to 0.73. Low correlations among the BPP and general indices of fear, d epression, anxiety, body consciousness and social desirability are rep orted. The BPP appears to provide a unique composite assessment of sel f-report of behavioral, physiological, and cognitive reactions to pain experienced by individuals with a wide range of pain problems.