Principles & Practice of Pain Medicine > Part III. Psychological Evaluation and Treatment of Chronic Pain > Chapter 13. Psychosocial Assessment of Chronic Pain R. Joshua Wootton

Psychometric Measures in Psychosocial Assessment

"The interview is an indispensable feature of psychosocial assessment; however, developing diagnostic and prognostic impressions and a treatment plan based solely on the patient's verbal self-report can prove a problematic enterprise. Even in casual conversation, people are likely to forget, editorialize, distort, and defensively censor themselves—both consciously and unconsciously—when disclosing personal information; and the situation of the clinical interview, as a sample of human behavior, is no different. One study even suggests that patients with chronic pain who wish to appear socially conventional—the response bias of social desirability—typically report less depression and anxiety but higher levels of pain.³⁰ Although it is not feasible to test the veracity of every statement, it is nevertheless possible to improve on the likelihood of arriving at an accurate appreciation of an individual patient's experience and story. Comparing data gathered by other providers, reviewing the available records, interviewing family members, and administering one or more psychometric instruments are all ways of cross-validating the data from the clinical interview of the patient.Of the literally thousands of psychometric measures available for use in clinical settings and research, hundreds have been created or adapted specifically for application to patients with chronic pain or chronic illness. Most of these are pencil-and-paper, self-report instruments, but some are available in software editions; and the..."