The Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) is a questionnaire designed to assess the psychosocial state of a person with chronic pain. Analysis of MPI results by Turk and Rudy (1988) found three classes of chronic pain patient: "(a) dysfunctional, people who perceived the severity of their pain to be <answer>high</answer>, reported that pain interfered with much of their lives, reported a <answer>high</answer>er degree of psychological distress caused by pain, and reported low levels of activity; (b) interpersonally distressed, people with a common perception that significant others were not very supportive of their pain problems; and (c) adaptive copers, patients who reported <answer>high</answer> levels of social support, relatively low levels of pain and perceived interference, and relatively <answer>high</answer> levels of activity." Combining the MPI characterization of the person with their IASP five-category pain profile is recommended for deriving the most useful case description.
What do dysfunctional people perceive the severity of their pain to be?
high