About this Medicine article

Clinical Importance of Changes in Chronic Pain Intensity Measured on an 11-Point Numerical Pain Rating Scale by John T. Farrar; James P. Young; Linda LaMoreaux; John L. Werth; Michael R. Poole is a Medicine article available to read on EtoBox.

Pain intensity is frequently measured on an 11-point pain intensity numerical rating scale (PI-NRS), where 0=no pain and 10=worst possible pain. However, it is difficult to interpret the clinical importance of changes from baseline on this scale (such as a 1- or 2-point change). To date, there are no data driven estimates for clinically important differences in pain intensity scales used for chronic pain studies. We have estimated a clinically important difference on this scale by relating it to global assessments of change in multiple studies of chronic pain. Data on 2724 subjects from 10 recently completed placebo-controlled clinical trials of pregabalin in diabetic neuropathy, postherpetic neuralgia, chronic low back pain, fibromyalgia, and osteoarthritis were used. The studies had similar designs and measurement instruments, including the PI-NRS, collected in a daily diary, and the standard seven-point patient global impression of change (PGIC), collected at the endpoint. The changes in the PI-NRS from baseline to the endpoint were compared to the PGIC for each subject. Categories of ‘much improved’ and ‘very much improved’ were used as determinants of a clinically important di

Author

John T. Farrar; James P. Young; Linda LaMoreaux; John L. Werth; Michael R. Poole

Publisher

Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)

Published

2001

Language

EN

Field

Medicine (Health Sciences)