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Objective The aim of this study was to assess validity, reliability, and sensitivity of the Persian version of the short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire 2 (SF-MPQ-2) in patients with neuropathic and non-neuropathic pain. Design Beaton's guideline was used to translate and adapt the SF-MPQ-2 to Persian. Subjects One hundred eighty-four patients with subacute and chronic non-neuropathic pain and 74 patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (total 258) attending multidisciplinary pain clinic participated in the study. Outcome Measures Internal consistency and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were estimated for participants who had completed the questionnaire in the morning and evening of the first day. The visual analog scale (VAS) and the present pain intensity (PPI) were also recorded to test convergent validity of the questionnaire. Sensitivity to change was examined after a standard treatment and validated by means of the patient global impression of change (PGIC) in addition to VAS and PPI. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to find possible components. Results Cronbach's alpha was 0.906, which showed high internal consistency. ICC (0.941) revealed test–retest reliability. There was high correlation between the mean VAS and the mean total score ( r = 0.926). Patients in different levels of PPI and PGIC exhibited significant differences among their mean total scores ( P < 0.05). EFA revealed four components similar to the original SF-MPQ-2. Conclusion The Persian translation of the expanded and revised version of the SF-MPQ-2 is a highly reliable, sensitive, and valid instrument to evaluate pain in patients with and without neuropathic etiology.

Nora Sandu1,2, Fatemeh Momen-Heravi3, Pooyan Sadr-Eshkevari4, Ali Arvantaj5 and Bernhard Schaller2 1Department of Neurosurgery, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, 2Department of Neurosurgery, University of Paris 7, Paris, 3Craniomaxillofacial Research Center, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences 4Dental Section, Farzan Clinical Research Institute, Tehran, 5Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, 1Switzerland 2France 3,4Iran 5USA

Background The Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) is one of the most widely used instruments to assess pain. The aim of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the questionnaire for Farsi (the official language of Iran) speakers in order to test its reliability and sensitivity. Methods We followed Guillemin's guidelines for cross-cultural adaption of health-related measures, which include forward-backward translations, expert committee meetings, and face validity testing in a pilot group. Subsequently, the questionnaire was administered to a sample of 100 diverse chronic pain patients attending a tertiary pain and rehabilitation clinic. In order to evaluate test-retest reliability, patients completed the questionnaire in the morning and early evening of their first visit. Finally, patients were asked to complete the questionnaire for the third time after completing a standardized treatment protocol three weeks later. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to evaluate reliability. We used principle component analysis to assess construct validity. Results Ninety-two subjects completed the questionnaire both in the morning and in the evening of the first visit (test-retest reliability), and after three weeks (sensitivity to change). Eight patients who did not finish treatment protocol were excluded from the study. Internal consistency was found by Cronbach's alpha to be 0.951, 0.832 and 0.840 for sensory, affective and total scores respectively. ICC resulted in 0.906 for sensory, 0.712 for affective and 0.912 for total pain score. Item to subscale score correlations supported the convergent validity of each item to its hypothesized subscale. Correlations were observed to range from r2 = 0.202 to r2 = 0.739. Sensitivity or responsiveness was evaluated by pair t-test, which exhibited a significant difference between pre- and post-treatment scores (p < 0.001). Conclusion The results of this study indicate that the Iranian version of the SF-MPQ is a reliable questionnaire and responsive to changes in the subscale and total pain scores in Persian chronic pain patients over time.