I am looking for a validated tool that can identify muscle pain or myalgias as major predominat factor in chronic pain patients? Are there any such questionairres used in fibromyalgia research for example?
currently there is no validated questionnaire that can distinguish muscles over other sources of pain. Physical exam still remains the most relabel way of establishing myalgia or fibromyalgia.
There is a standardized manual for tender point survey in chronic widespread pain, published by Okifuji, Turk and others in J Rheumatol 1997. The American Colleague of Rheumatology also gives a heuristic based on thender points, to identify the syndrome of chronic widespread pain. Psychophysical diagnostic of muscle pain is possible with pressure pain. More specific physiological mechanisms re described by Sigfried Mense and Uli Hoheisel, as well as by Graven-nielsen, Arendt- Nielsen and Mense. see their book fundamentals of musculokeletal pain, published 2008 by iasp press.
I don't know a specific questionnaires or scales to evaluate muscle pain, but I think the "Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire" and the "Vanderbilt Pain Management Inventory" can be usefull.
Also the "Brief Pain Inventory" has several evidence in the literature on fibromyalgia
hi rabih. I am working on musculoskeletal pain disorders. most of the available questionnaires are disease specific such as Oswestry for low back pain, WOMAC for osteoarthritis. Nordic Pain questionnaire can be used for assessing musculoskeletal pain. However, generalized questionnaires for pain such as Visual analogue Scale, (VAS), Numeric rating Scale (NRS), Brief Pain inventory could be used. i have seen Manchester coding used in Fibromyalgia and chronic widespread pain.