Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain
Limitations in the Assessment of Pain Reporting Reliability-Validation of the Focused Analgesia Selection Test
By Milde C, Brinskelle LS, Wilhelm M and 1 others.
Abstract
Background
Unreliable pain reporting predicts placebo responses in clinical trials and has been documented in chronic pain populations. The thermal Focused Analgesia Selection Test (FAST) quantifies Pain Reporting Reliability (PRR) by assessing consistency when rating repeated thermal stimuli of varying intensities presented in pseudo-randomized order. However, FAST's validity as a pure measure of reporting reliability remains unclear.
Methods
We investigated whether PRR derived from the thermal FAST is confounded by individual differences in pain sensitivity (pain and tolerance thresholds), stimuli extending beyond individual pain ranges, and temporal trends. Fifty-five healthy participants (32 women) completed the thermal FAST protocol comprising 49 stimuli across seven temperatures (43°C-50°C).