[The Pain Perception Scale--a differentiated and change-sensitive scale for assessing chronic and acute pain]

Presented is a diagnostic instrument to assess chronic and acute pain, that allows multifaceted and standardized quantification of pain experience. This tool--the Pain Experience Scale ("Schmerzempfindungsskala"--SES)--measures two dimensions of subjectively felt pain, the affective characterization as well as modes of sensory characterization of pain. Applications range from degenerative or inflammatory joint and back pain to headache/migraine, neuropathias and other pain-related diseases (age 16 to 80 years). Completion, evaluation, and interpretation are done easily. Scale development had comprised 3 steps of research for obtaining a model of invariant structure and homogenous factors. Scale analyses demonstrated the instrument's reliability, and numerous studies illustrated the validity of the scale. They showed that factorial, convergent and discriminant validity can be regarded as given. Moreover, the scale proved to be sensitive in experimental pain studies. Additionally, specific patterns of scores could be observed validly for 18 different groups of disease/pain. Special efforts were invested to show its sensitivity to change in the course of pains. Here, the Pain Experience Scale proved to be suitable in postoperative pain, drug-based pain therapies, different psychological pain management approaches, physiotherapeutic prevention, and a multimodal treatment programme of a specialized pain clinic. In German-speaking countries, the SES has been in use for several years as a well-proven instrument in medical care, clinical research as well as field evaluation.