Pain Patient Profile: a scale to measure psychological distress

To evaluate the construct validity of the Pain Patient Profile (P-3), a brief self-report instrument designed to measure anxiety, depression, and somatization in patients presenting with pain.

Comparison of P-3 scores with previously established measures of depression, anxiety, and somatization, and comparison of P-3 scores of pain patients with those of patients with diabetes.

Hospital-based outpatient pain clinic, family practice clinic, diabetes education group.

Seventy pain patients and 40 patients with diabetes.

High positive correlations (.69 to .90) were found between the P-3 scales of Depression, Anxiety, and Somatization and the corresponding measures of these constructs, and high intercorrelations were found among the three P-3 scales. Significant differences were found between pain patients and diabetes patients for the P-3 Depression and Somatization scale scores, but not for the P-3 Anxiety scale scores.

The P-3 is a useful instrument for initial screening of psychological distress in pain patients. Some patients may show elevations on more than one of the clinical scales, which either indicates that the P-3 does not distinguish well among these constructs or reflects the well-established comorbidity of these constructs.