[Proposal for the creation of polish "pain language"]

The assessment of the effectiveness of a method used in pain management based on direct opinions of the patients about the intensity of pain sensation before and after treatment has been the source of many errors. The below presented study was based on a similar one carried out in the English language by Melzack and Torgerson its purpose was to determine the usefulness of a "pain glossary" for measurements of pain intensity without any need of asking the patient about his definition of pain intensity. It was found that the Polish language has a great number of words (93) depicting the character and intensity of pain, which could be classified in several groups representing different qualities of pain sensation. The results of an inquiry investigation conducted among health service works and patients showed that most of these words corresponded to similar values of pain intensity as estimated by the patients. The author concludes that these words representing different intensities of sensation may serve as a basis for elaboration of a Polish version of the Pain Questionnaire of McGill-Melzack.