Pain Drawing Scoring Is Not Improved by Inclusion of Patient-Reported Pain Sensation

Study design This is a retrospective study of 250 patients who describe low back pain with pain drawings. A computer application using artificial neural networks was designed to analyze pain drawings and evaluate the contribution of pain sensation to drawing classification. Objective The primary goal of this study was to assess the contribution of patient recorded pain sensation marks in classifying pain drawings into one of five broadly defined categories. The hypothesis was that including pain sensation would improve classification. Summary of background data With no perfect diagnostic test for patients with low back pain, many approaches have been proposed and are used. One common diagnostic tool is the pain drawing. Several quantitative methods have been proposed to score the drawings. Some methods use pain sensation in the scoring; however, the contribution of pain sensation has not been defined. Methods A custom computer application classified the pain drawing. Data consisted of 250 pain drawings from patients with low back pain. Results Patient recorded pain sensation is not necessary in computer-based scoring of pain drawings. Conclusion Patient-reported pain sensation does not improve classification when quantitatively scoring pain drawings.