The multidimensional pain inventory profiles in patients with chronic cancer-related pain: an examination of generalizability.

This study examined the generalizability of the non-malignant pain patient profiles based on the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) to patients with cancer-related pain. Data were collected from 112 cancer patients. In total, 107/112 patients completed the MPI. Of the 96% of patients classified, only 60% were classified by the three main profiles. In this sample, there were 47.7% (n=51) Adaptive Copers, 9.3% (n=10) Dysfunctional, 2.8% (n=3) Interpersonally Distressed; 32.7% (n=35) Anomalous; 3.8% (n=4) Hybrid; and 3.8% (n=4) Unanalyzable. Because of the significantly lower pain severity, interference and affective distress scores, the Anomalous group could be considered Highly Adaptive. Given that 80% were classified as either Adaptive or Anomalous, these findings suggest that while the MPI-based profiles do apply, a two profile classification system may be more suitable for cancer patients than the usual three. In particular, the low proportion of patients classified as Interpersonally Distressed may reflect important differences in social support for cancer patients compared with non-cancer patients. Whereas the MPI-based profiles are consistent across non-malignant pain problems, it appears that the nature of cancer may affect the MPI-based profile classification system more than non-malignant pain problems do.