The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), Verbal Rating Scale (VRS), and the Faces Pain Scale-Revised (FPS-R) are among the most commonly used measures of pain intensity in clinical and research settings. Although evidence supports their validity as measures of pain intensity, few studies have compared them with respect to the critical validity criteria of responsivity, and...

BACKGROUND In clinical practice, children are often asked to rate their pain intensity on a simple 0 to 10 numerical rating scale (NRS). Although the NRS is a well-established measure for adults, no study has yet evaluated its validity for children with chronic pain. OBJECTIVES To examine the convergent and discriminant validity of the NRS as it is used within regular clinical practice to doc...

CONTEXT The use of unidimensional pain scales such as the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), Verbal Rating Scale (VRS), or Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) is recommended for assessment of pain intensity (PI). A literature review of studies specifically comparing the NRS, VRS, and/or VAS for unidimensional self-report of PI was performed as part of the work of the European Palliative Care Research Collab...

Until very recently there has been an anomaly in the assessment of the intensity of pediatric pain. The most commonly used self-report scale is the one that, up to now, has had the smallest amount of supportive research. This scale, the numerical rating scale (NRS), is administered by asking patients to say a number, usually from 0 to 10, to express the intensity of their pain. Compared with we...

BACKGROUND Patients in sub-Saharan Africa commonly experience pain, which often is un-assessed and undertreated. One hindrance to routine pain assessment in these settings is the lack of a single-item pain rating scale validated for the particular context. The goal of this study was to examine the face validity and cultural acceptability of two single-item pain scales, the Numerical Rating Scal...

The pain relief scale (PRS) is a method that measures the magnitude of change in pain intensity after treatment. The present study aimed to evaluate the correlation between PRS and changes in pain determined by the visual analogue scale (VAS) and numerical rating scale (NRS), to confirm the evidence supporting the use of PRS. Sixty patients with chronic spinal pain that had a VAS and NRS record...

PURPOSE To estimate the just-noticeable difference (JND) in ocular comfort rating by human, contact lens-wearing subjects using 1 to 100 numerical scales. METHODS Ostensibly identical, new contact lenses were worn simultaneously in both eyes by 40 subjects who made individual comfort ratings for each eye using a 100-point numerical ratings scale (NRS). Concurrently, interocular preference was...

BACKGROUND Post-procedural pain control after uterine artery embolization (UAE) of urethral leiomyomata remains a major problem. METHODS This double-blind, randomized study tested the possibility to obtain a quicker onset of analgesia by using effect-compartment controlled remifentanil patient-controlled analgesia (remifentanil TCI-PCA) than by using i.v. morphine PCA. Both systems were conne...

BACKGROUND Pain in critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) is common. However, pain assessment in critically ill patients often is complicated because these patients are unable to communicate effectively. Therefore, we designed a study (a) to determine the inter-rater reliability of the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) and the Behavioral Pain Scale (BPS), (b) to compare pain scores...