Rating pain from 0 to 10 may not help much

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- A commonly used measure for pain -- rate pain from 0 for no pain to 10 for the worst pain -- may only be modestly accurate, a U.S. study found.

Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina said that accurate pain screening is important because pain symptoms, both serious and not so serious, are among the most common complaints in primary care.

"A screening test needs to provide accurate information that doctors can use to improve care. If a test isn't very accurate or useful, doctors learn to tune out the numbers," study author Dr. Erin E. Krebs, of the Indiana University School of Medicine, said in a statement.

The study, published in the October issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, found that although the pain scale was easy to administer, it failed to identify about one-third of patients with pain serious enough to impair day-to-day functioning.

Most patients in this study had long-standing pain and many had more than one pain problem. Because the rating system focuses on current pain, it may miss intermittent symptoms, said Krebs.

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