Pain measurement: Construct validity of the affective dimension of the McGill Pain Questionnaire with chronic benign pain patients

The research reported here used a population of chronic benign pain patients and examined the relationship between scores in the affective dimension of the McGill Pain Questionnaire and independent measures of affect and infirmity. The data indicated that patients who reported high affective dimensional scores were significantly more depressed and anxious and somatized more than patients who reported low affective scores. Similarly, these high affective patients reported significantly greater perceived infirmity secondary to their pain. These results suggest that the affective dimension score of the McGill Pain Questionnaire can serve as a useful index of the overall affective status of pain patients and given this interpretation the dimension has good construct validity.