Self-rated measure of pain frequency, intensity, and burden: Psychometric properties of a new instrument for the assessment of pain.

Measurement of pain is important in both clinical and research samples, yet while several tools have been developed to aid in the measurement of pain, no gold standard brief pain assessment is universally utilized. As part of the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network study CTN-0037, “Stimulant Reduction Intervention Using Dosed Exercise (STRIDE),” a new brief, self-administered measurement of pain frequency, intensity, and burden was developed for potential use in both research and clinical settings. This article describes the development and initial psychometric properties of the instrument, the Pain Frequency, Intensity, and Burden Scale (P-FIBS). The P-FIBS was administered to all participants (N=302) with psychostimulant use disorders enrolled in the multisite STRIDE trial. The four items on the P-FIBS all demonstrated high item-total correlations (range 0.70-0.85) with a high Cronbach’s alpha (0.90). The P-FIBS also demonstrated a strong negative correlation with the bodily pain sub-score of the Short Form Health Survey (r=-0.76, p<0.0001) and did not correlate with a measure of cocaine (r=0.09, p=0.12) or methamphetamine (r=-0.06, p=0.33) craving.

Conclusions: The P-FIBS demonstrates good psychometric properties. This brief measure can be used to assess pain in research settings or as a screen in clinical settings. Further research is needed to assess the measure’s sensitivity to change with treatment.

Related protocols: CTN-0037