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.