To develop a more adjustable method for subjective pain assessment through outpost study, we carried out the various pain measurement protocols on 143 patients who complained of low back pain.

The purpose of this study was to obtain information about the clinical value of various subjective pain assessment protocols which already had been used in the pain study.

A summary of results is as follows;

1) The reliability of each protocol for pain assessment which was translated to Korean was very high.

2) Simple Descriptive Scale, Visual Analogue Scale, and Verbal Rating Scale were simple and easy to perform, and they reflected the intensity of pain but not the multidimensional aspects of pain.

3) The McGill Pain Questionnaire represented the multidimensional aspects of pain relatively well, but was time-consuming and difficult to understand.

4) Among all of these pain protocols, the Pain Disability Index was more valid in the fields of rehabilitation medicine since it reflected altered behavior of daily living due to pain.

5) Each pain protocol described the pain according to its individual characteristics. However, some variables such as duration or frequency of pain and aggravating motion could not be revealed.

According to the above results, a new form of subjective pain assessment protocol, which is simple and easy to perform and a multidimensional mirror of pain, is necessary.