The West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory (WHYMPI) is a widely used and validated, comprehensive self-report tool designed to assess the impact of chronic pain on an individual's life. The tool is divided into three parts. Part I includes five scales: 1) perceived interference of pain while functioning in work, social, and family/relationship settings, 2) perceived level of support or concern from spouse or significant other, 3) severity of pain, 4) perceived level of control over various aspects of life, and 5) affective distress. Part II includes three scales and assesses the patient’s perception of the degree to which spouses or significant others display negative, solicitous, and distracting responses to their pain behaviors and complaints. Part III assesses four subscales based on the patient’s report of how often they participate in everyday activities, which include household chores, outdoor work, activities away from home, and social activities. The inventory helps clinicians understand the multidimensional aspects of pain, including how pain affects daily activities in a variety of areas of life, mood, and interpersonal relationships. This information can inform personalized treatment strategies for managing chronic pain.

Self-report

56

18+

Weekly

Patient responses are made on a 7-point Likert scale. Scoring the West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory (WHYMPI) involves calculating subscale scores across its three sections. See table below; question numbers identified below match the numbers on the Blueprint platform. For Parts I and II - higher scores indicate greater difficulty caused by chronic pain. For Part III, lower scores indicate greater difficulty.

A General Activity scale score can be obtained from the combination of all four activity scale scores. General Activity = (Sum of all questions in Part III)/18.

Blueprint created new questions for areas where the paper/pen version of the measure obtains information without creating a question (identifying a significant other and assessing unemployed or retired status in questions 3 and 14). This is why the original version has 52 items and the Blueprint version has 56.

Regarding scoring, by default Blueprint provides a total score. In this assessment a total score is not interpretable. The subscale scores will give you more interpretable information.

The Affective Distress subscale cannot be calculated with the identified formula due to limitations with the Blueprint platform. Instead, an average score is provided for the subscale.

Kerns, R.D., Turk, D.C., & Rudy, T.E. (1985). The West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory (WHYMPI). Pain, 23, 345-356.

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