The Varni/Thompson Pediatric Pain Questionnaire. I. Chronic musculoskeletal pain in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

The Varni/Thompson pediatric pain questionnaire (PPQ) represents an attempt to empirically assess the complexities of pediatric chronic, recurrent pain. This initial investigation targeted chronic musculoskeletal pain in children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. The PPQ provides a developmental step toward the comprehensive assessment of the pain experience in children with chronic pain. Further reliability and validity studies are needed to determine the generalizability of the PPQ with larger numbers of children with a variety of acute and chronic pain experiences across a diversity of settings.