Observation of pain behaviors during episodes of sickle cell disease pain.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the utility of a brief behavioral observation method to quantify pain.
DESIGN: Correlational study. PATIENTS: 31 sickle cell disease (SCD) patients first seen in an outpatient clinic in painful crisis. OUTCOME MEASURES: Observed pain behaviors, physician rating of patient pain on a 0 to 10 scale, patient rating of pain on a 0 to 10 scale, and patient pain report from the McGill Pain Questionnaire.
RESULTS: High interrater reliability for the brief behavioral observation was found, and observed pain behavior was found to correlate significantly with physician ratings of pain.
CONCLUSIONS: This study is an important first step toward developing a systematic behavior-observation methodology for the analysis of SCD pain. The current methodology was found to be reliable and easily implemented in a busy, outpatient clinic.