Interesting poll results from Medscape on Pain levels (the old 1-10)

[Guest guest]

A study in the October issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine discusses the accuracy of identifying pain intensity using a numeric 0-to-10 scale. How accurately do you think such a scale gauges your patients' pain levels?

Very accurately. 4% (37)

Somewhat accurately. 48% (385)

Not very accurately. 38% (303)

Not at all accurately. 8% (71)

[Guest guest]

-----Original

Message-----

the accuracy of identifying pain intensity using a numeric

0-to-10 scale. How accurately do you think such a

scale gauges your patients' pain levels?

Very accurately. 4% (37) Somewhat accurately. 48% (385) Not

very accurately. 38% (303) Not at all

accurately. 8% (71)

[Guest guest]

Hi Barb

I work at a rehab unit for people with Brain Injury and Mental Health

issues where we sometimes ask our clients to rate their pain if/when

it's an issue. Personally, I find that the correlation between " rated

pain " and requests for meds to treat the pain are highly inconsistent.

I think that Ken's approach ( " I'm in pain - I'm really hurting -

HELP! " ) is far easier and a more reliable measure than making some

reference to an arbitrary 10-point scale [unfortunately, the

statisticians would have trouble scoring that ... ].