Pain-relevant responses from significant others: development of a significant-other version of the WHYMPI scales

This paper reports on the development of a measure of significant-others' reports of the frequency of their solicitous, distracting and negative responses to chronic pain patients demonstrations of pain. This significant-other version is based on analogous scales that comprise part of the West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory (WHYMPI). The 3 pain-relevant response scales were demonstrated to have adequate indices of internal consistency and criterion-related validity. The potential clinical and research utility of the measure is discussed.