Cross-cultural adaptation of the Revised Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire into Brazilian Portuguese language / Adaptação transcultural do Questionário Neurofisiológico da Dor revisado para língua portuguesa do Brasil

ABSTRACT Objective To perform a cross-cultural adaptation of the Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire for the Brazilian population (NPQ-BR). Methods A translation and cross-cultural adaptation study were conducted in 11 stages according to standard procedures. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach's Alpha test (α). Results Four translators, six experts, twenty-one patients and ten physiotherapists participated in the study. The NPQ-BR was obtained after seven versions. The expert committee adapted four out of twelve items (item 1, 3, 11, and 12) to adapt the content of the instrument to the Brazilian context. The pre-test phase showed good internal consistency (α = 0.63). The comparison of the correct answers of the questionnaire between the groups (physical therapist group mean = 7.0 ± 1.7; patient group mean = 3.7 ± 2.1; p < 0.01) confirmed the discriminative validity of the NPQ-BR. Conclusion The Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire was cross-culturally adapted into a Brazilian context and can be used to assess the level of neurophysiological knowledge of pain of Brazilian patients. The interpretation of the results of the NPQ-BR must be taken with caution due to the absence of a robust validation methodology of the instrument.

RESUMO Objetivo Realizar a adaptação transcultural do Questionário Neurofisiológico de Dor (QND) para a população brasileira. Métodos Um estudo de tradução e adaptação transcultural foi conduzido em 11 estágios de acordo com procedimentos padronizados. Foi realizada estatística descritiva e inferencial. A consistência interna do questionário foi avaliada pelo teste de Alfa de Cronbach (α). Resultados Participaram do estudo quatro tradutores, seis especialistas, vinte e um pacientes e dez fisioterapeutas. A versão brasileira do QND foi obtida após sete versões. O comitê de especialistas adaptou quatro dos doze itens (item 1, 3, 11 e 12) para ajustar o conteúdo do instrumento ao contexto brasileiro. A fase de pré-teste evidenciou boa consistência interna (α = 0,63). A comparação dos acertos dos itens do questionário entre os grupos (média dos fisioterapeutas = 7,0 ± 1,7; média dos pacientes = 3,7 ± 2,1; p < 0,01) confirmou a validade discriminativa da versão brasileira do QND. Conclusão O Questionário Neurofisiológico de Dor revisado foi adaptado para o contexto brasileiro e pode ser utilizado para avaliar o nível de conhecimento neurofisiológico da dor de pacientes brasileiros. A interpretação dos resultados da versão brasileira do QND deve ser feita com cautela devido à ausência de metodologia robusta de validação do instrumento.

Disrupted Self-Perception in People With Chronic Low Back Pain. Further Evaluation of the Fremantle Back Awareness Questionnaire.

UNLABELLED: Several lines of evidence suggest that body perception is altered in people with chronic back pain. Maladaptive perceptual awareness of the back might contribute to the pain experience as well as serve as a target for treatment. The Fremantle Back Awareness Questionnaire (FreBAQ) is a simple questionnaire recently developed to assess back-specific altered self-perception. The aims of this study were to present the outcomes of a comprehensive evaluation of the questionnaire's psychometric properties and explore the potential relationships between body perception, nociceptive sensitivity, distress, and beliefs about back pain and the contribution these factors might play in explaining pain and disability. Two hundred fifty-one people with chronic back pain completed the questionnaire as well as a battery of clinical tests. The Rasch model was used to explore the questionnaires' psychometric properties and correlation and multiple linear regression analyses were used to explore the relationship between altered body perception and clinical status. The FreBAQ appears unidimensional with no redundant items, has minimal ceiling and floor effects, acceptable internal consistency, was functional on the category rating scale, and was not biased by demographic or clinical variables. FreBAQ scores were correlated with sensitivity, distress, and beliefs and were uniquely associated with pain and disability. PERSPECTIVE: Several lines of evidence suggest that body perception might be disturbed in people with chronic low back pain, possibly contributing to the condition and offering a potential target for treatment. The FreBAQ was developed as a quick and simple way of measuring back-specific body perception in people with chronic low back pain. The questionnaire appears to be a psychometrically sound way of assessing altered self-perception. The level of altered self-perception is positively correlated with pain intensity and disability as well as showing associations with psychological distress, pain catastrophization, fear avoidance beliefs, and lumbar pressure pain threshold. In this sample, it appears that altered self-perception might be a more important determinant of clinical severity than psychological distress, pain catastrophization, fear avoidance beliefs, or lumbar pressure pain threshold.

Lumbar tactile acuity is near identical between sides in healthy pain-free participants.

A growing body of literature suggests that alterations in brain structure and function are a feature of chronic back pain. Tactile acuity is considered a clinical signature of primary somatosensory representation and offers a simple measure of cortical reorganisation. Clinical interpretation of test scores from an individual patient is hampered by variance in published normative values and less than ideal inter-rater reliability. These problems might be mitigated in people with unilateral back pain by using the patient as their own control and comparing tactile acuity at the painful site to performance at the corresponding position on the non-painful side. The first step in exploring this approach is to quantify the normal side-to-side difference in healthy populations. We pooled data from three previous studies that measured lumbar tactile acuity bilaterally in healthy controls using similar protocols. We calculated the mean and variance of the absolute error between sides, the standard error of measurement and the reliable change index (RCI). The mean difference between sides was 3.2 mm (±5.2) when assessed vertically and 1.9 mm (±3.2) when assessed horizontally. The standard error of measurement was 4.2 mm when assessed vertically and 2.7 mm when assessed horizontally. The RCI suggests that differences of greater than 13 mm when assessed horizontally and 17 mm when assessed vertically equate to 95% confidence that a difference truly exists. Several assumptions related to the application of this approach need to be investigated further.

Acupuncture applied as a sensory discrimination training tool decreases movement-related pain in patients with chronic low back pain more than acupuncture alone: a randomised cross-over experiment.

BACKGROUND: High-quality clinical evidence suggests that although acupuncture appears superior to usual care in the management of chronic low back pain, there is little meaningful difference between true and sham acupuncture. This suggests that the benefits of acupuncture are mediated by the placebo response. An alternative explanation is that sham acupuncture is an active treatment and shares a mechanism of action with traditionally applied acupuncture. One plausible candidate for this mechanism is improvement in self-perception mediated through the sensory discrimination-like qualities of acupuncture. We aimed to compare the effects of acupuncture with a sensory discrimination training component to acupuncture without. METHODS: 25 people with chronic low back pain were enroled in a randomised cross-over experiment. We compared the effect of acupuncture delivered when sensory discrimination is optimised to acupuncture delivered when it is not, on movement-related back pain immediately after each intervention. RESULTS: We found that the average pain intensity after participants had received acupuncture with sensory discrimination training (2.8±2.5) was less than when they received acupuncture without sensory discrimination training (3.6±2.0). This difference was statistically significant (after adjustment; mean difference=-0.8, 95% CI -1.4 to -0.3; p=0.011). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are consistent with the idea that acupuncture may offer specific benefit that is not dependent on precisely where the needles are inserted so much as that the patient attends to where they are inserted. If so, the location of the needles might be better focused on the painful area and the need for penetration of the skin may be mitigated.