Chiropractic chronic low back pain sufferers and self-report assessment methods. Part I. A reliability study of the Visual Analogue Scale, the Pain Drawing and the McGill Pain Questionnaire.

Comprehensive assessment of the problems of low back pain sufferers requires that (in addition to objective measures and clinicians' judgments) an examination of subjective perception of their difficulties should also be made. Subjective measurement has, in the past, presented several problems to researchers. However, in recent years, several new methods of exploring individual reactions to pain and disability have been developed. These assessment measures have, in the main, been carefully explored with severe chronic, acutely ill and surgical patients, but they have not been shown to be appropriate for use with mild chronic low back pain sufferers. This study examines the reliability of several widely used self-report measures. In general, the measures were shown to have acceptable levels of reliability for use with this population, although recommendations for caution in the use of the pain drawing is urged.