An assessment of chronic pain behavior in a structured interview

The current study evaluated the effects of several situational contexts on the behavior of 25 chronic pain patients. Subjects participated in a 20-minute interview in which questions relevant to both pain and non-pain related experiences were asked. Another part of the interview involved a behavioral task in which the patient was asked to walk, bend and pick up a small object. Target behaviors were measured throughout the interview and included gestures of pain, grimacing, touching, smiles, laughter, changing the topic of conversation, ratings of affect, fluency and loudness, and the duration of eye contact and speech. The results showed a clear differentiation between the frequency of gestures, touching and grimacing between the pain and non-pain events. Behavior during the motor task was similar to the pain situations. Ratings of affect, fluency and loudness did not significantly differ across the situations. Slightly more eye contact and longer speech was observed during pain questions.