Patients' subjective acute pain rating scales (VAS, NRS) are fine; more elaborate evaluations needed for chronic pain, especially in the elderly and demented patients

摘要

In this issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Pain, Pardis Zalmay and Amanda C de C Williams publish an interesting study on how a group of lay persons understand the commonly used pain intensity scales [ 1 ]. This group of medical students early in their clinical training, most likely are a more interested and better informed group of persons than the general public, illustrate that our pain-intensity scales can be misunderstood and misinterpreted.Ever since Michael Bond and Issy Pilowsky in 1966 [2] were the first to use and publish the VAS - the Visual Analogue Scale for assessing subjectively experienced pain intensity, this instrument has been ubiquitously used and misused. The expressions "doing VAS" - "VASing" being synonymous with doing a pain-assessment, at least in the Nordic countries.