Abstract
The Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool (CPOT) is a behavioral scale recommended by
experts for pain assessment in critically ill patients unable to verbally communicate.
The main goal of this study was to determine the relationship between self-reports
of pain intensity and the CPOT score, and establish the sensibility and the specificity
of the CPOT to different levels of pain intensity in healthy subjects. A total of
18 healthy subjects participated in the study (mean age = 37.8 years). All subjects
underwent a 2 minutes noxious cold pressor test (CPT) at 7°C. Verbal pain ratings
were obtained with a visual analog scale (0-100) while pain behaviors were videotaped.
Afterwards, 2 independent evaluators quantified pain behaviors using the CPOT. Interrater
reliability was supported with an ICC of 0.963 (95%CI [0.904-0.986]). A moderate positive
correlation between the CPOT scores and self-reports of pain intensity during the
CPT was found (r = 0.52, p = 0.028). Such result indicates that subjects reporting
high level of pain showed a higher number or more intense pain behaviors. A cut-off
score >2.5/8 on the CPOT led to a sensibility of 64% and a specificity of 86%. Results
from this pilot study support that an increase of CPOT score is correlated with moderate
to high levels of pain intensity and further support the clinical use of the CPOT.
Perspective
This article presents the psychometric properties of a behavioral pain scale called
the CPOT which was developed to assess pain in critically ill adults unable to self-report.
Our results in healthy subjects showed that the CPOT behavioral score is significantly
correlated with the self-report of pain intensity and supports its clinical use.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 02, 2010
Accepted:
January 15,
2010
Received in revised form:
December 1,
2009
Received:
October 13,
2009
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
