Cancer-related pain--II. Assessment with visual analogue scales.

As an attempt to develop an assessment methodology which is practical for use with severely ill cancer patients, Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) of pain, depression and anxiety were compared to standard measures of these variables in 29 outpatients and 11 inpatients suffering from cancer-related pain. Support for the validity of the VAS-Pain and VAS-Depression but not the VAS-Anxiety was found. These results demonstrate that the VAS-Pain and VAS-Depression provide a practical, valid method for assessing the sensory and affective components of cancer-related pain.