Conceptual adequacy of the neuropathic pain symptom inventory in six countries
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Conceptual adequacy of the neuropathic pain symptom inventory in six countries Bruce Crawford*†1, Didier Bouhassira†2, Audrey Wong†1 and Ellen Dukes†3 Address: 1Mapi Values, 15 Court Square, Suite 620, Boston, MA, 02108, USA, 2Hôpital Ambroise Paré, 9, avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92100, Boulogne-Billancourt, France and 3Pfizer Inc., 235 E 42nd St, New York, NY, 10017, USA Email: Bruce Crawford* - [email protected]; Didier Bouhassira - [email protected]; Audrey Wong - [email protected]; Ellen Dukes - [email protected] * Corresponding author †Equal contributors
Published: 18 August 2008 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2008, 6:62
doi:10.1186/1477-7525-6-62
Received: 12 January 2008 Accepted: 18 August 2008
This article is available from: http://www.hqlo.com/content/6/1/62 © 2008 Crawford et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Background: Neuropathic pain results from a nerve lesion or nerve damage. Because it is a subjective experience, patient-reported outcomes may measure both the symptoms and impact on the patient's life. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory (NPSI) adequately assesses neuropathic pain symptoms in patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy, post-herpetic neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, and sciatica across multiple cultures. Methods: From data collected from 132 subjects in 6 countries, qualitative research methods identified their most important symptoms (and verbal descriptions) associated with neuropathic pain. A core set of commonly described symptoms spanning multiple cultures was also described. Moderators using a semi-structured discussion guide conducted focus groups consisting of patients in the U.S., Brazil, Japan, China, Finland, and Spain to elicit concepts that were most important and relevant (concept elicitation phase). Study subjects ranked the importance of each neuropathic pain symptom, completed the NPSI, and commented on its ability to capture key symptoms (face and content validation phase). Results: Descriptive terms for sensations of neuropathic pain were similar in all countries; burning, electric shocks, and pins and needles were among the most-common sensations. Individuals with neuropathic pain experienced all sensations that were included in the NPSI. They also tended to describe pins and needles and numbness interchangeably, perhaps reflecting the relative number of DPN subjects on study. Conclusion: Based on data from these focus groups, the NPSI is an acceptable instrument for assessing neuropathic pain.
Background Neuropathic pain results from a nerve lesion or nerve damage and may be experienced as burning, electric shock-like, sharp stabbing pains that come and go, deep aches
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