VALIDATION OF THE RATIO SCALE OF THE DIFFERENTS TYPES OF PAIN

The main aim was to validate the ratio scale derived from the non-metric continuum of the intensity of the different types of pain using cross-modality matching. Magnitude estimation method and cross-modality matching were used with perceived line lengths. The study was formed by 30 outpatients from various specialty clinics, 30 physicians and 90 nurses. The results were: Cancer Pain, Myocardium Infarct Pain, Renal Colic, Burn Injury Pain, and Childbirth Labor Pain were regarded as the pains of greater intensity; the rank order of pain intensity for the different types of pain, comparing the different psychophysical methods used resulted in levels of significant agreement. The conclusion was that the relation between the magnitude estimates and cross modality matching estimates of the line-lengths is a power function, and the scale for the different types of pain is valid, stable and consistent. DESCRIPTORS: pain measurement; psychophysics; pai