The Chronic Illness Problem Inventory as a measure of dysfunction in chronic pain patients

Assessment of physical and psychosocial dysfunction is recognized as essential in chronic pain patient evaluation. One instrument, the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP), has demonstrated good reliability and validity as a measure of dysfunction among chronic pain patients. An alternate measure, the Chronic Illness Problem Inventory (CIPI), is shorter and more easily scored than the SIP, but as yet has not been applied widely to chronic pain problems. In the present study, 95 chronic low back pain patients completed the SIP, the CIPI, activity diaries, the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale (CES-D), before participating in a chronic pain treatment study. Overt pain behaviors were also coded from videotapes of a standardized assessment protocol. Seventy-five subjects completed the measures post-treatment. The results indicate that although the SIP and the CIPI are significantly correlated and appear to be measuring similar constructs, there is also substantial unshared variance between them, suggesting that they may tap somewhat different aspects of dysfunction in chronic pain. The CIPI shows promise as a useful alternative measure of dysfunction in chronic low back pain patients, but requires further validation for this purpose.