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The Hamilton Inventory for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: a cognitive debriefing study of the clinician-based
Tara Packham1, Joy C MacDermid, James Henry
1School of Rehabilitation Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. ackhamt@hhsc.ca
Insights
Healthcare professionals
Area of Science:
- Pain Medicine
- Clinical Assessment
- Healthcare Professional Practices
Background:
- The Hamilton Inventory for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (HI-CRPS) is an evolving multidisciplinary assessment tool.
- Understanding current practices is crucial for tool development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate healthcare professionals' assessment practices, beliefs, and preferences for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).
- To inform the development of the clinician-based portion (CB-HI-CRPS) and user manual of the HI-CRPS.
Main Methods:
- Descriptive study design utilizing semi-structured cognitive interviews.
- Involved diverse healthcare professionals treating CRPS patients.
- Collected data on assessment practices and scaling preferences for 15 concepts.
Main Results:
- Professionals utilized HI-CRPS concepts 85.2% of the time.
- Physicians and nurses favored present/absent judgments; therapists used severity scaling (none/mild/moderate/severe).
- Key themes included assessment values, CRPS beliefs, professional roles, and knowledge translation.
Conclusions:
- Variations in terminology and assessment behaviors highlight the need for standardization.
- Clear scoring frameworks and standardized instructions are essential for improving HI-CRPS reliability.
- This research informs the refinement of the HI-CRPS for consistent clinical application.
Study Design:
Descriptive.
Introduction:
The Hamilton Inventory for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (HI-CRPS) is a multidisciplinary assessment tool under development.
Purpose Of The Study:
This study examined the assessment practices, beliefs and preferences of health care professionals working with CRPS to inform the content and structure of the clinician-based portion of the HI-CRPS (CB-HI-CRPS), as well as refine the user manual.
Methods:
Semi-structured cognitive interviews were conducted with health care professionals from a spectrum of disciplines working with CRPS. Assessment practices and scaling preferences for 15 assessment concepts were collected, relating directly to items on the CB-HI-CRPS. Interviews were transcribed and coded with emergent themes.
Results:
Participants reported using the concepts from the CB-HI-CRPS 85.2% of the time. Physicians and nurses preferred present/absent judgements, while therapists used none/mild/moderate/severe scaling. Emerging themes highlighted assessment values, beliefs about CRPS, professional roles, and knowledge translation.
Conclusions:
Lack of uniformity in terminology and assessment behaviours underscores the need for clear scoring frameworks and standardized assessment instructions to improve reliability across the proposed users of the HI-CRPS.
Level Of Evidence:
Level 4.
