McGill Pain Index
So many have asked us for a picture of the McGill Pain Index. There are many versions out there, we have included two of them below. Causalgia is Latin for “burning pain”. It was the first name coined for CRPS. As you can see, Causalgia is far and away the most painful form of Chronic Pain that exists! This is a good tool to use with your loved ones to help them compare our pain with other diseases and problems they can relate to. It also helps you to see that you are NOT exaggerating your pain one little bit! It is also a good graphic to use when fighting for Social Security Disability. The McGill Pain Index was first developed in 1971 as a way of gauging the quality of pain. It was developed at McGill University by Melzack and Torgerson. When creating this index they included such things as sensory qualities (skin color, temperature changes, pressure, sensitivity), affective qualities (tension, fear and autonomic properties), and evaluative issues that are help pinpointing the intensity of the pain. This Index is used by doctors and hospitals around the world and is considered a very valuable tool when looking at chronic pain It is considered to be a valid, reliable, consistent, and above all, useful instrument.
“Because pain is a private, personal experience, it is impossible for us to know precisely what someone else’s pain feels like. No man can possibly know what it is like to have menstrual cramps or labour pain. Nor can a psychologically healthy person know what a psychotic patient is feeling when he says he has excruciating pain…There is a remarkable consistency in the choice of words by patients suffering the same or similar pain syndromes“
–Wall, P. D. And Melzack, R. (1994), Textbook of Pain, Churchhill Livingstone, New York, pp. 339-345. Be aware that this pain component may be relieved by specific sympatholytic procedures
Version of the McGILL Pain Index
