A review of statistical methods for analysing pain measurements

In this article the usual methods of analysis of postoperative pain data, measured by a visual analogue scale at several time points, have been studied. These methods are mostly inappropriate or inefficient. Some better methods are discussed and the antedependence test is suggested as a suitable method. With this method, differences between overall profiles and at each time point are detectable and the method can be used efficiently even if some observations are missing.