The Faces Pain Scale


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Document information

Title:

The Faces Pain Scale - Revised
(English, French and 33 other languages)

Links to the FPS-R are at the bottom of this page

Purpose:

A scale for measurement of pain intensity in children by self-report, in English, French and many other languages

Approval/ revision date:

March 2009

Keywords

document type:

protocol, guidelines, scale

Intended audience:

healthcare professionals

Institution type:

children’s hospital, general hospital

Drug type:

N/A

Pain type:

disease, procedural, surgical/trauma, treatment related

Delivery technique:

N/A

Nonpharmacological treatments:

N/A

Age:

child, adolescent

Disease type:

N/A

Submitter and institution information

Name:

Carl L von Baeyer, PhD

Title:

Professor Emeritus of Psychology & Associate Member in Pediatrics

Institution:

University of Saskatchewan

Location:

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Type of institution:

N/A

Number of beds:

N/A

Supervising specialist availability:

N/A

Submitter's commentary:

The Faces Pain Scale - Revised (FPS-R) was adapted from the Faces Pain Scale (Bieri et al, 1990) in order to make it possible to score on the widely accepted 0-to-10 metric. It shows a close linear relationship with visual analog pain scales across the age range 4 through 16 years. It is easy to administer and requires no equipment except for the photocopied faces. The absence of smiles and tears in this faces scale may be advantageous. The FPS-R is recommended for use with younger children in parallel with numerical self-rating scales (0-to-10) for older children and behavioural observation scales for those unable to provide self-report.

References

Bieri D, Reeve R, Champion GD, Addicoat L and Ziegler J. The Faces Pain Scale for the self-assessment of the severity of pain experienced by children: Development, initial validation and preliminary investigation for ratio scale properties. Pain 1990;41:139-150.

Hicks CL, von Baeyer CL, Spafford P, van Korlaar I and Goodenough B. The Faces Pain Scale - Revised: Toward a common metric in pediatric pain measurement. Pain 2001;93:173-183.

Spagrud LJ, Piira T and von Baeyer CL. Children's self-report of pain intensity: The Faces Pain Scale - Revised. American Journal of Nursing 2003;103(12):62-64.

von Baeyer CL and Piira T. The Faces Pain Scale - Revised (FPS-R) around the world: Translation and adaptation for use in many cultures. Poster, 6th International Symposium on Paediatric Pain, Special Interest Group on Pain in Childhood, International Association for the Study of Pain, Sydney, Australia. Also presented to Canadian Pain Society, Toronto. Pain Research and Management, 2003;8 (Supp. B), 57B.

Reviewer’s commentary:

published in peer-reviewed journal (see Hicks & al., 2001, reference above)

Reviewer:

N/A

Download PDF containing the FPS-R face images and instructions (in French and English)

Download PDF containing FPS-R instructions (in French, English and 33 other languages)

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