Validity and reliability of the Turkish Self-administered Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs (S-LANSS) questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE

The Self-Administered Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs (S-LANSS) is a 7-item self-report scale developed to identify pain of predominantly neuropathic origin. The aim of this study was to develop a Turkish version of the S-LANSS and to test its validity and reliability in chronic pain patients.

METHOD AND PATIENTS

We enrolled 244 chronic pain patients treated at the Neurology Department. The original version of the S-LANSS was translated into Turkish by standard procedures. An independent clinician determined the pain type (neuropathic vs nociceptive). The reliability (internal consistency and test-retest reliability) and validity (agreement with the reference diagnosis and sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values) were determined.

RESULTS

Two-hundred and forty-four patients with chronic pain (167 women, 43.1 +/- 11.4 years), 137, neuropathic pain and 107, nociceptive pain, were asked to complete the S-LANSS twice. Cronbach's alpha-coefficient was 0.74 for the test and 0.73 for the retest. Total S-LANSS scores for subjects did not significantly differ between applications (P = 0.46). Correlation coefficient was r: 0.97 (P < 0.01), which is fairly high for a self-assessment tool. Compared with the clinical assessment, the sensitivity and specificity of the S-LANSS were 72.3% (95% CI, 64.0-79.6%) and 80.4% (95% CI, 71.6-87.4%), respectively, for both the test and retest. The sensitivity and specificity of the Turkish S-LANSS were similar to those determined in the original validation study.

CONCLUSION

This study reports the first validation of a translated version of the S-LANNS into another language. The results suggest that the Turkish version of S-LANSS is a reliable and valid differential diagnostic measure of neuropathic pain in chronic pain patients.