Definition
Short self-report questionnaires designed to measure aspects of pain-related anxiety and avoidance for use in clinical assessment and research.
Description
The 40-item Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (PASS) (McCracken, Zayfert, & Gross, 1992) and a shorter 20-item version of the same assessment instrument (PASS-20) (McCracken & Dhingra, 2002) measure pain-related anxiety, fear, and avoidance. They were designed for clinical and research purposes and mostly for use with adults with recurrent or chronic pain conditions. However, they have been validated and used in people without identified pain conditions, such as university students and people recruited from community settings (Abrams, Carleton, & Asmundson, 2007). The original PASS was developed at a time during the late 1980s and early 1990s when clinicians and researchers were beginning to focus greater attention on processes of fear and avoidance in relation to chronic pain. Since that time a model of chronic pain referred...
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Abrams, M. P., Carleton, R. N., & Asmundson, G. J. G. (2007). An exploration of the psychometric properties of the PASS-20 with a nonclinical sample. The Journal of Pain, 8, 879–886.
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Larsen, D. K., Taylor, S., & Asmundson, G. J. G. (1997). Exploratory factor analysis of the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale in patients with chronic pain complaints. Pain, 69, 27–34.
McCracken, L. M., & Dhingra, L. (2002). A short version of the Pain Anxiety Symptom Scale (PASS-20): Preliminary development and validity. Pain Research & Management, 7, 45–50.
McCracken, L. M., & Gross, R. T. (1998). The role of pain-related anxiety reduction in the outcome of multidisciplinary treatment for chronic low back pain: Preliminary results. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 8, 179–189.
McCracken, L. M., Zayfert, C., & Gross, R. T. (1992). The Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale: Development and validation of a scale to measure fear of pain. Pain, 50, 67–73.
Roelofs, J., McCracken, L., Peters, M. L., Crombez, G., van Breukelen, G., & Vlaeyen, J. W. S. (2004). Psychometric evaluation of the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (PASS) in chronic pain patients. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 27, 167–183.
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Vowles, K. E., & McCracken, L. M. (2008). Acceptance and values-based action in chronic pain: A study of treatment effectiveness and process. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76, 397–407.
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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media, New York
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McCracken, L.M. (2013). Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (PASS) and Short Version PASS-20. In: Gellman, M.D., Turner, J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_907
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_907
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1004-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1005-9
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