Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Preliminary evidence suggests that chronic pain patients complete pain intensity measures using idiosyncratic methods. Our objective was to understand these methods and how they might impact the psychometric properties of the instruments. ⋯ The themes discovered suggest that patients include sensations and experiences other than pain intensity in their ratings, experience the rating of pain as a comparative task, and do not use the scale in a linear manner. These themes are relevant to understanding the validity and scale properties of commonly used pain intensity measures.