Gracely R H, Wolskee P J
Pain. 1983 Apr;15(4):389-98. doi: 10.1016/0304-3959(83)90074-x.
This study used Functional Measurement (FM) scaling procedures to demonstrate that subjects can scale and average the intensity or unpleasantness of pain sensations produced by an electrical tooth pulp stimulus and symbolized by a word. Unlike conventional psychophysical scaling methods, FM includes a testable validity criterion that must be met before the resultant scales are accepted. Twenty subjects used a handgrip dynamometer to rate all possible pairs of (1) 5 tooth pulp stimuli ranging in equal log steps from pain threshold to tolerance, and (2) 5 descriptors of sensory intensity or unpleasantness, twice each for a total of 50 stimulus pairs. The results show that subjects can average the pain magnitude produced by a tooth pulp stimulus with pain magnitude symbolized by a word and that this ability varies with the type of words used. FM produces separate scales of pain intensity, verbal magnitude and psychophysical ability. This method may provide a new and promising tool for the assessment of pain experience.
本研究采用功能测量（FM）量表编制程序来证明，受试者能够对由电刺激牙髓产生的、用一个词来表征的疼痛感觉的强度或不适感进行量表编制及平均处理。与传统的心理物理学量表编制方法不同，FM包含一个可检验的效度标准，在最终量表被接受之前必须满足该标准。20名受试者使用握力计对所有可能的配对进行评分，这些配对包括：（1）5种牙髓刺激，从疼痛阈值到耐受程度以相等的对数步长递增；（2）5种感觉强度或不适感的描述词，每种刺激对每种描述词各评定两次，总共50对刺激。结果表明，受试者能够将牙髓刺激产生的疼痛程度与用一个词表征的疼痛程度进行平均，并且这种能力会因所用词汇类型的不同而有所变化。FM产生了疼痛强度、言语量级和心理物理能力的独立量表。这种方法可能为疼痛体验的评估提供一种新的、有前景的工具。
