Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory (NPSI) Questionnaire-Persian Version Can Differentiate Neuropathic from Non-Neuropathic Pain

Background: Neuropathic pain (NP) is a common condition that impacts life negatively. This type of pain responds poorly to treatment. Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory (NPSI) is a common instrument used for the assessment of NP response to the treatment.Aim: The current study aims to validate the Persian version of NPSI (PV-NPSI).Methods: The current study has been conducted on 162 patients experiencing pain from neuropathic or non-neuropathic origin. The Persian version of NPSI was proposed through standard protocol and re-sponded to by patients twice: at baseline within an interval of 3 hours and then again within 1 month. Its correlation with the patient global impression of change (PGIC) and the clinical global impression of change (CGIC) was assessed. In addition, the validity and reliability of the PV-NPSI was evaluated.Results: The reliability Cronbach's alpha of PV-NPSI was 0.834 and test-retest intraclass-coefficient was calculated as 0.983 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.977-0.988; p < .001). In addition, the measured coef-ficient sensitivity to change based on PGIC and CGIC was 0.859 for both. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for the diagnosis of NP revealed area under curve (AUC) of 0.936 ( p < .001; 95%CI: 0.894-0.978).Conclusions: Based on the current study's findings, the PV-NPSI is a reliable and valid means for the dif-ferentiation of NP from the other types of pain in patients with several musculoskeletal pain complaints, but we cannot determine a cutoff point for it. Also, this questionnaire can be efficiently used for the assessment of response to NP treatment.(c) 2022 American Society for Pain Management Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.