Background & Aims

Patient-reported outcomes are commonly used in clinical pain research. Little, if any, standardized training is generally given to participants regarding how to interpret questions and to guide their responses. This lack of standardization may lead to inconsistent use of rating scales. Accurate pain reporting to measure the efficacy of study drugs is essential in clinical pain studies. Training provides opportunities to practice and improve pain reporting. Our aim was to improve the study participants knowledge of the numeric rating scale (NRS), 0-10 and to distinguish neuropathic pain from other pain, and also to examine if pain report training made a difference.

Methods

Patient-report training performed at baseline in a study investigating a drug’s effect on pain in patients with peripheral neuropathy. All patients included, underwent a pain report training at baseline.
We asked for average pain in four cases, with no pain, mild pain, moderate pain and severe pain, where the study participants were asked to rate the pain on NRS, 0-10. The study participants were also trained to distinguish between neuropathic pain and other types of pain. The study participants also reported their own average pain before and after pain report training. Outcome was the change (if any) in their rating of their own pain.

Results

63 patients with peripheral neuropathic pain were included, and 58 participated in pain report training. There were 31 male and 27 female, with mean age 56.3 years, and mean painduration 6.3 years. Other data are being analyzed and will be presented at the conference.

Conclusions

Data are being analyzed and will be presented at the conference.

References

Carmland ME, Kreutzfeldt M, Holbech JV, Andersen NT, Jensen TS, Bach FW, et al. Effect of lacosamide in peripheral neuropathic pain: study protocol for a randomized, placebo-controlled, phenotype-stratified trial. Trials. 2019;20(1):588.

Farrar JT, Young JPJ, LaMoreaux L, Werth JL, Poole MR. Clinical importance of changes in chronic pain intensity measured on an 11-point numerical pain rating scale. 2001;94(2):149-58.

Treister R, Lawal OD, Shecter JD, Khurana N, Bothmer J, Field M, et al. Accurate pain reporting training diminishes the placebo response: Results from a randomised, double-blind, crossover trial. PloS one. 2018;13(5):e0197844.

Presenting Author

Bente Christensen

Poster Authors

Bente Christensen

Study Nurse

Aarhus University/Department of Clinical Medicin, Danish Pain Research Center

Lead Author

Nanna Finnerup

The Danish Pain Research Center - Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University

Lead Author

Malin Carmland

AU, Department of Clinical Medicine,Danish Pain Research Center

Lead Author

Topics

  • Models: Chronic Pain - Neuropathic