Limited content overlap between commonly used self-report instruments for central (pain) sensitization in...

Central pain mechanisms may be prominent in a considerable subset of rheumatology patients with persistent pain. Several self-report instruments have been used in previous research to infer the presence and severity of central sensitization (CS) that stem from different definitions or approaches of CS. The current study aimed to evaluate and quantify the overlap of actual symptoms measured among self-report measures of CS in rheumatology.

We used Fried's (2017) comprehensive systematic approach to analyse the content of five commonly used or typical self-report measures (Generalized Pain Questionnaire, Pain Sensitivity Questionnaire, Central Sensitization Inventory, Central Aspects of Pain in the Knee scale and the painDETECT) used in rheumatology research and to visualize and quantify the overlap in symptoms measured.

The five instruments together measured 39 different symptoms, most of which could be grouped into nociplastic pain manifestations (7 symptoms), neuropathic pain qualities (5 symptoms), and psychosomatic symptoms and emotional distress (25 symptoms). Most symptoms (74.4%) were unique to a single instrument. Thermal allodynia was the most frequently measured symptom across the different instruments, assessed in four of the measures. Average content overlap was very low and ranged from no overlap at all to moderate overlap (Jaccard index = 0.43) between pairs of instruments.

There is high heterogeneity and limited overlap in the content of self-report measures used to infer central pain sensitization. This may lead to results that are specific to the particular instrument and may limit the generalizability and comparability of study findings in rheumatology research.