Psychometric analysis of the audiovisual taxonomy for assessing pain behavior in chronic back-pain patients

Sixty chronic back-pain patients were administered the audiovisual taxonomy of pain behavior during their first and last weeks in an inpatient multidisciplinary pain clinic. Audiovisual total score provided a useful index of pain behavior with a suitable frequency and reliability, while offering unique variance as a measure of treatment outcome. Patients' pain behaviors upon admission to the pain program were positively correlated with the following background variables: receiving worker's compensation, pounds overweight, and number of back surgeries. Patients' pain behaviors upon completion of the pain program were significantly correlated with their preferences for pain treatment modalities. High levels of pain behavior correlated with a preference for treatments of ice and heat. Low levels of pain behavior correlated with a preference for physical therapy, social work, lectures, and relaxation. It was suggested that treatment outcome in a multidisciplinary pain clinic is more immediately related to patients' coping styles and their choice of pain treatment modalities than to their demographics and personalities.