Psychophysical evaluation of the descriptors of pain in the postoperative

Abstract

This experimental study aimed to evaluate 20 descriptors of the post-operative pain considering the adequate level of each in describing it. A total of 48 post-operated patients, age between 14 and 70 years old, 60.4% male, participated in the experiment. They judged the descriptors through the Magnitude Estimation Method aiming to qualify and select those with the highest and lowest frequency of attributions in the description of the post-operative pain. The results showed that among the descriptors evaluated, terrible, strong, unbearable, intense and violent were the most frequently ones, whereas the least frequently attributed descriptors were: colossal, smashing, fulminating, blinding and lacerating. The results showed that the most frequently attributed descriptors in the description of post-operative pain are those that represent high magnitude of pain.