A study published in “Pain Research and Management” validated the Italian versions of the Pain DETECT questionnaire (PD-Q) and Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs (LANSS) as reliable tools having excellent psychometric characteristics for pain evaluation. Alberto Migliore et al. undertook this prospective multicenter validation cohort study to examine the ability of both the instruments to differentiate between patients affected by nociceptive pain and neuropathic pain.

In total, 100 subjects were incorporated (50 participants having nociceptive pain [knee osteoarthritis] and 50 participants having neuropathic pain [trigeminal or postherpetic neuralgia]. At baseline and after 24/48 hours, the recruited participants completed the two questionnaires. The Italian versions of both the questionnaires were initially developed through translation and back-translation. Assessment of internal consistency, discriminative power, stability, and validity was done.

Considering the ability of both the questionnaires to distinguish between neuropathic and nociceptive pain, substantial differences were noted.  Internal consistency for the Italian version of  PD-Q was found to be 0.80 while for LANSS, it was found to be 0.76.

LANSS displayed excellent test-retest reliability with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.76, and PD-Q illustrated a high test-retest reliability with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.96. For inter-rater reliability, a concordance rate of 83.3% was noted between LANSS and the reference diagnosis.

Thus, LANSS and PD-Q are excellent screening tools for nociceptive and neuropathic pain and have good psychometric characteristics, thus enhancing clinical judgment in pain management.