The development and preliminary validation of an instrument to assess patients' attitudes toward pain

This paper describes the development and preliminary validation of a questionnaire designed to assess five attitudes considered important in the long-term adjustment of chronic pain patients. The specific subscales of the questionnaire were chosen to represent attitudes believed to influence the ways by which chronic pain patients manage their pain. Following the development of five reliable subscales, correlations of the subscales with self-reported pain behaviors and coping strategies were calculated, providing preliminary support for the concurrent validity of the instrument.