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McGill Groups
Question out of the course part II: when a patient is overwhelmed by the amound of words while doing the mcgill is it acceptable to say just one word of/for each group?
Karin, Miranda, Mathias, Cornelia
Karin, Miranda, Mathias, Cornelia
Comments
Each cluster of words on the McGill is ordered by severity - the first word is the least severe, while the last word in the cluster is the most severe. The person is usually asked to select which word is best for them from only the clusters they already have chosen words from, and the element of severity can be factored in through adjusted scoring. If we are making that selection for them, such detail is lost.
In reality, what we are treating is neuropathic pain, and having some measure of pain quality is better than no measure if the patient cannot cognitively engage with the McGill. Other good choices are 1) painDETECT, which is a screening tool for neuropathic pain, but you can use only the 7 qualities questions to measure change over time or 2) the short form of the McGill (SFMPQ2) which has a neuropathic subscale and affective subscale (21 questions in total). The DN4 is only a screening tool, and may not detect change in pain qualities over time. The S-LANSS is also a screening tool, but not quite as sensitive to change as most of the questions are yes/no, meaning the person needs to have the symptom completely resolve for the score to change. If your person is still really struggling, I might consider just using the neuropathic and affective subscales of the SFMPQ2 on their own to still give me the neuropathic pain rating, but also the insight into how strongly the pain is emotionally encoded.
That is the short form of this answer - if you would like the references to back it up, please email me at packhamt@mcmaster.ca - I have written several papers on these measures, and have attached copies of the assessments themselves below.