The Clinical Utility of Pain Behavior Measures

A number of tools and methods to measure pain behavior have been developed over the last few decades. While several have been used effectively in the clinical environment, the majority of well-validated tools suffer from a lack of clinical utility. Future development and validation of pain behavior measures must balance psychometric rigour with cost effectiveness, ease of administration, and acceptability. It appears that a variety of tools and methods may be required to accommodate the varied nature of pain behaviors. The facial expression of pain is proposed as an alternative to gross measures of pain behavior that were primarily designed for chronic pain populations. Given the potential use of pain behavior measures in noncommunicative populations, it is important that efforts to develop clinically feasible tools continue.