Abstract
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is widely used in the psychological assessment of patients with chronic pain. Patients' profiles have been used in a number of ways: in attempts to discriminate between cases; as predictors of both medical treatment and pain management outcomes; and in attempt to assess degree of disability. This study examines the relationship between the MMPI scales and the pain intensity of patients with chronic pain evaluated by the Visual Analogue Scale, the Verbal Rating Scale, the Numerical Rating Scale, and the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ). In this study we selected newcomers as subjects to minimize the influence of other factors, to catch whether personality profiles affect the intensity of pain more accurately. Several kinds of analysis demonstrate that personality profiles derived from the MMPI itself is not useful for the prediction of the quantitative aspects of pain. But it is noteworthy that there is significant relationship between the personality profiles and the qualitative aspects of pain when we take it into consideration using the MPQ.
