The Pain Drawing as an Aid to the Psychologic Evaluation of Patients With Low-Back Pain

A study was undertaken to evaluate the possibility of using the pain drawing of a patient with low-back pain as a screening test to determine whether further psychologic evaluation was necessary. Using the analysis described, the pain drawing predicted a high or low hypochondriasis or hysteria scale on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory in 97 of 109 patients studied (89%).