Global Pain Scale (GPS)
The Global Pain Scale
by Paul Lynch M.D, Tory McJunkin M.D, Douglas A. Gentile, Ph.D., John Woodhouse and Jillian A Maloney
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Global Pain Scale (PDF – 11Kb)
Description
The Global Pain Scale (GPS) is a brief screening tool for physicians to use as a bedside assessment of baseline functioning, and as a repeated outcome measure for assessing change over time in both acute and chronic pain states. Rooted in the biopsychosocial model, the GPS assesses physical pain, affective effects of pain, specific clinical outcomes, and the degree to which the pain interferes with activities of daily living (ADLs). The GPS was designed to be used in a busy practice setting providing physicians with a standardized comprehensive scale that is easy to administer and interpret. The traditional NRS or VRS 0-10 scales measure pain intensity but lack other contributing variables affecting the clinical course of chronic pain. Other more complex scales exist like the short-form McGill (SF-MPQ) and the West Haven Yale (WHY) multidimensional pain inventory and although these scales offer a valuable integrative approach to pain assessment, the scales individually do not encompass all aspects of pain including sociocultural, cognitive, and affective factors. The GPS is an attempt to create an easy to use, two-page measure that is validated to measure the same outcomes as longer tests like the McGill, but one that is much more applicable to a busy practice setting. The GPS total score is from 0-100 building upon the existing heuristic of the 0-10 concept of pain which should yield easy generalization for most practitioners. The GPS can be administered to the patient in the waiting room and scored by the support staff thus resulting in an robust assessment of pain in one numerical score that the physician can employ to formulate treatment plans.
The GPS can also be utilized to show multiple clinical endpoints, measure pain scores, and follow pain treatment efficacy in clinical trials. The GPS includes four tests in one measure: Pain, Emotions, Clinical Outcomes, and Daily Activities. The four subscales of the GPS are what practitioners and researchers track when starting or investigating a new intervention, whether it be a new medication, physical therapy, or a pain relieving procedure. The GPS offers a comprehensive measure that is easy to administer and interpret without the need for additional pain scales.
An extended version of the Global Pain Scale was used to measure the scale’s validity and reliability against the SF-MPQ, WHY, and the perceived stress scale. The GPS has high internal reliability, high criterion validity, and high construct validity. The shorter one-page version of the GPS is the most recent edition rendering it to be more efficient yet still complete in the assessment of a patient’s pain, emotions, activities of daily living, and clinical outcomes.