Earlier studies have associated improvements in chronic pain outcomes with various consultation attributes, including: (a) the legitimization of people's chronic pain experience, (b) affective components of the therapeutic relationship, and (c) reaching decisions about people's care through collaboration. Although studies have used patient self-report measures to examine how aspects of consultations contribute to managing chronic pain, the psychometric quality of these measures have not been independently appraised to date. A review by Stomski and colleagues evaluated the psychometric properties and administrative feasibility of published patient self-report consultation measures that were validated for people with chronic pain. Databases were searched to identify patient self-report consultation measures validated in chronic pain populations. Explicit review criteria for 8 measure attributes were developed for this review by synthesizing information from available guidelines. In total, 58 potentially relevant consultation measures were identified. Of these, four measures satisfied the inclusion/exclusion criteria and were critically appraised by two independent reviewers. Overall, the psychometric quality of the included measures was modest, particularly in terms of evidence for content validity, test-retest reliability, responsiveness, and interpretability.

WHAT THE STUDY MAY MEAN TO YOU AS A HEALTH CARE PROVIDER: The authors concluded that more psychometric research needs to be undertaken to improve the existing measures' quality and broaden the scope of chronic pain consultation measures before studies may be conducted to develop a comprehensive understanding of the manner in which consultation attributes influence chronic pain outcomes.

WHAT THE STUDY MAY MEAN TO YOU AS A PATIENT: Self-reported data can be vexing. On one hand, it can be the best data available to others as only the patients experience symptoms (health care providers can only interpret signs). When patients are accurate, their information is invaluable. If, on the other hand, patients are lackadaisical about gathering self-monitoring and reporting on data the have collected, the information can be misleading and, in some cases, useless. This reflects the value of teaching patients to gather valid and reliable information on themselves.

J Stomsk et al. Patient Self-report Measures of Chronic Pain Consultation Measures: A Systematic Review. Clinical Journal of Pain, 2010;26:235-243.