C. Zaza et al., The Multidimensional Pain Inventory profiles in patients with chronic cancer-related pain: an examination of generalizability, PAIN, 87(1), 2000, pp. 75-82
This study examined the generalizability of the non-malignant pain patient
profiles based on the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) to patients wit
h cancer-related pain. Data were collected from 112 cancer patients. In tot
al, 107/112 patients completed the MPI. Of the 96% of patients classified,
only 60% were classified by the three main profiles. In this sample, there
were 47.7% (n = 51) Adaptive Copers, 9.3% tit = 10) Dysfunctional, 2.8% (n
= 3) Interpersonally Distressed; 32.7% (n = 35) Anomalous; 3.8% (n = 4) Hyb
rid; and 3.8% (n = 4) Unanalyzable. Because of the significantly lower pain
severity, interference and affective distress scores, the Anomalous group
could be considered Highly Adaptive. Given that 80% were classified as eith
er Adaptive or Anomalous, these findings suggest that while the MPI-based p
rofiles do apply, a two profile classification system may be more suitable
for cancer patients than the usual three. In particular, the low proportion
of patients classified as Interpersonally Distressed may reflect important
differences in social support for cancer patients compared with non-cancer
patients. Whereas the MPI-based profiles are consistent across non-maligna
nt pain problems, it appears that the nature of cancer may affect the MPI-b
ased profile classification system more than non-malignant pain problems do
. (C) 2000 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by El
sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.