Detailled Information

Buckenmaier CC 3rd, Galloway KT, Polomano RC, et al. Preliminary validation of the Defense and Veterans Pain Rating Scale (DVPRS) in a military population. Pain Med. 2013 Jan;14(1):110-23.

Psychometric Testing of the Defense and Veterans Pain Rating Scale (DVPRS): A New Pain Scale for Military Population

Concurrent Validity of the Defense and Veterans Pain Rating Scale in VA Outpatients

Measures for the Assessment of Pain in Adults

The DVPRS was developed to standardize assessment of pain across Department of Defense and Veterans Health Administration health systems. Its first iteration incorporated the Faces Rating Scale–Revised, for which the International Association for the Study of Pain holds the copyright. To avoid copyright infringement, an alternative facial expressions scale was developed for a second version of the instrument (DVPRS version 2.0).

The DVPRS consists of a pain intensity item and four supplemental items. The supplemental items ask about how pain is interfering with usual activity, sleep, mood, and stress during the past 24 hours.

The pain intensity item comprises an 11-point numeric rating scale (NRS) (0-10) that incorporates the following: 1) descriptions for each integer on the scale (eg, 0 = no pain, 1 = hardly notice pain, 5 = interrupts some activities, 10 = as bad as it could be/nothing else matters); 2) a traffic light coding system that groups pain intensity into mild (green: 1-4), moderate (yellow: 5-6), and severe (red: 7-10); and 3) a facial expressions scale. Four supplemental items are accompanied by an 11-point NRS in which 0 is anchored as “does not interfere” and 10 as “completely interferes.

Separate scores are recorded for pain intensity and each of the supplemental items (interference with activity, sleep, mood, and stress over the past 24 hours).