Electronic diary assessment of pain, disability and psychological adaptation in patients differing in duration of pain

Computerized diary measurement of pain, disability and psychological adapta tion was performed four times a day for 4 weeks in 80 patients with various duration of unexplained pain, Reported are (1) the temporal characteristic s and stability of pain report during the 4-week measurement period, (2) th e association between pain duration and pain report. disability and general psychopathology, and (3) the accordance between diary assessment versus qu estionnaire assessment of pain, disability and psychological adaptation, No evidence of instrument reactivity was found: pain report was stable across the 4-week period. However, pain report appeared to be highly variable bot h between and-within days. About half the patients showed a clear increasin g trend in pain during the day. Several differences were found between subg roups:of patients varying in pain duration. Patients with less than 6 month s of pain reported significantly less pain intensity, disability and fatigu e than patients whose pain persisted for more than 6 months, Pain coping an d responses to pain behaviors by the spouse also differed for the subgroups : longer pain duration was associated with increased:catastrophizing and so licitous responses from the spouse. Comparison of scores obtained with diar y versus questionnaire assessment indicated moderate correlations for most variables. Retrospective (questionnaire) assessment of pain intensity yield ed significantly higher pain Scores than diary assessment. (C) 2000 Interna tional Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier Science B.V .