Screening for psychiatric symptoms and illness behaviour in a pain clinic

Evolution of a multidisciplinary pain clinic in a rehabilitation hospital is described. The assessment process was facilitated, particularly with respect to psychiatric and psychological evaluation, by the preliminary administration of two well established but simple self-administered questionnaire instruments, the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ) and the Crown-Crisp Experiential Index (CCEI). The characteristics of our pain clinic population are described. They demonstrate questionnaire profiles which are typical of pain patients. Attention is drawn to the CCEI profile now shown in three studies of pain patients, predominance of the somatic anxiety (S) scale occurring in all. Correlations between the IBQ and CCEI showed, inter alia, that the S scale is a measure of somatisation in pain patients. This paper aims to describe the changes in the clinic since previously published descriptions, to note the characteristics of our patient on the questionnaire instruments and to comment on the value of these questionnaires in the assessment of psychiatric symptoms and somatisation in pain clinic patients.