Built to Scale: A Corpus-Based Analysis of Adjective Scales in the Mcgill Pain Questionnaire

Modern medical diagnosis relies on precise pain assessment tools in translating clinical information from patient to physician. The McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) is a technique that utilizes 78 adjectives of different intensities 20 categories quantify patient’s pain. questionnaire’s efficacy depends predictable pattern adjective use by patients experiencing In this study, I recreate the MPQ’s intensity orderings using data gathered forums and modern NLP techniques. extract relationships searching for key linguistic contexts, then combine relationship form robust scales. Of 17 predicted research, only 4 diverge orderings, which statistically significant at 0.1 alpha level. results suggest patterns people pain, but call into question grouping adjectives.