53
 Melzack (1983), who proposed a motivational-affective dimension of

pain in his gate control theory reviewed above (Melzack & Dennis, 1980),

described the experience as follows:

 Pain has a unique, distinctly unpleasant, affective quality
 that differentiates it from sensory experiences such as sight,
 hearing, and touch. It becomes overwhelming, demands
 immediate attention, and disrupts ongoing behavior and
 thought. It motivates or drives the organism into activity
 aimed at stopping the pain as quickly as possible. To
 consider only the sensory features of pain and ignore its
 motivational and affective properties is to look at only part
 of the problem, and not even the most important part at that.
 (p. 3)

From this perspective he developed the McGill Pain Questionnaire to

measure the sensory, affective, and evaluative dimensions of pain, the

intensity of each dimension and the "patient's evaluation of the overall

intensity of the pain" (p. 4).

 Gracely (1983) proposed five properties of an ideal pain measure.

They include (a) freedom from bias that would lead to overestimate or

underestimate the pain, (b) the provision of immediate feedback to the

patient, (c) separation of the sensory aspects from the affective and

evaluative aspects, (d) utility for measurement of clinical and/or

experimental pain, and (e) absolute measure to determine between- and

within-group changes. Gracely expressed the belief that the McGill Pain

Questionnaire has all of these properties.

 In a study to determine the validity of using the McGill Pain

Questionnaire for assessing postoperative pain, Taenzer (1983) reported

"results indicate that the McGill Pain Questionnaire and the visual

analogue scale are valid and appropriate indices for assessing

postoperative pain. Both appear to reflect the clinical course of

postoperative pain and reflect the patient's affective state" (p. 117).