Avoiding Catch-22: validating the PainDETECT in a in a population of patients with chronic pain

作者：Timmerman Hans; Wolff Andre P; Bronkhorst Ewald M; Wilder Smith Oliver H G; Schenkels Marcel J; van Dasselaar Nick T; Huygen Frank J P M; Steegers Monique A H; Vissers Kris C P

来源：BMC Neurology, 2018, 18(1): 91.

DOI：10.1186/s12883-018-1094-4

• PainDETECT questionnaire
• Reliability
• Validity
• Sensitivity
• Specificity
• Screening tool
• Neuropathic pain
• Pain
• Clinical assessment
• Low back pain
• Neck shoulder arm pain
• Peripheral nerve damage

Background: Neuropathic pain is defined as pain caused by a lesion or disease of the somatosensory nervous system and is a major therapeutic challenge. Several screening tools have been developed to help physicians detect patients with neuropathic pain. These have typically been validated in populations pre-stratified for neuropathic pain, leading to a so called "Catch-22 situation:" "a problematic situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem or by a rule". The validity of screening tools needs to be proven in patients with pain who were not pre-stratified on basis of the target outcome: neuropathic pain or non-neuropathic pain. This study aims to assess the validity of the Dutch PainDETECT (PainDETECT-(Dlv)) in a large population of patients with chronic pain.
Methods: A cross-sectional multicentre design was used to assess PainDETECT-(Dlv) validity. Included where patients with low back pain radiating into the leg(s), patients with neck-shoulder-arm pain and patients with pain due to a suspected peripheral nerve damage. Patients' pain was classified as having a neuropathic pain component (yes/no) by two experienced physicians ("gold standard"). Physician opinion based on the Grading System was a secondary comparison.
Results: In total, 291 patients were included. Primary analysis was done on patients where both physicians agreed upon the pain classification (n = 228). Compared to the physician's classification, PainDETECT-(Dlv) had a sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 55%, versus the Grading System it achieved 74 and 46%.
Conclusion: Despite its internal consistency and test-retest reliability the PainDETECT-(Dlv) is not an effective screening tool for a neuropathic pain component in a population of patients with chronic pain because of its moderate sensitivity and low specificity. Moreover, the indiscriminate use of the PainDETECT-(Dlv) as a surrogate for clinical assessment should be avoided in daily clinical practice as well as in (clinical-) research. Catch-22 situations in the validation of screening tools can be prevented by not pre-stratifying the patients on basis of the target outcome before inclusion in a validation study for screening instruments.
Trial registration: The protocol was registered prospectively in the Dutch National Trial Register: NTR 3030.

• 出版日期2018-6-29