Use of The Oswestry Pain Questionnaire - Cross-Examining Psych Doctors, Tip #98

     The Oswestry Pain Questionnaire (OPQ) is a 10-item questionnaire that asks an individual to describe their behavior on ten different variables:  Pain Intensity, Personal Care, Lifting, Walking, Sitting, Standing, Sleeping, Sex Life, Social Life, and Traveling.  In each of the above noted areas, the test-taker is asked to choose one of the following categories for themselves:  “I can tolerate the pain I have without having to use pain killers,” “the pain is bad but I manage without taking pain killers,” “pain killers give complete relief from pain,” “pain killers give very little relief from pain,” and “pain killers have no effect on the pain and I do not use them.”  Clearly, the OPQ is a self-report questionnaire that has no validity scales for assessing the individual’s test-taking attitudes or credibility, rendering it useless in a medical-legal context.