A pain vocabulary in finnish — The finnish pain questionnaire

Abstract

Words related to pain were collected by asking 59 students and 18 patients to create a list by free association. Each subject was then given a dictionary-derived Finnish version of the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) with the words arranged in alphabetical order and was asked to place his own words among the dictionary-derived words which appeared most appropriate. Simultaneously, each word allocated on a visual analog scale (VAS) in order of increasing intensity. A vocabulary using the MPQ groups was collated using the words for which at least 1/2 of the subjects agreed as to classification. The words in each group were presented in alphabetical order. The list was then given to 76 university students whose job it was to decide if each word did belong to the class assigned. Following this, the words were arranged on a VAS scale in intensity order. The words mm-mean differences were then compared using a t-test. Those words were chosen for the pain vocabulary which reflected a statistically significant intensity change and were found most often in the word list. The same method is applicable irrespective of language. Words are replaceable by numercial values so that follow-up and renewed investigations become statistically comparable.