All 4 faces pain scales were found to be adequately supported by psychometric data .
When given a choice between faces scales , children preferred the WBFPRS .
Confounding of pain intensity with affect caused by use of smiling and crying anchor faces is a disadvantage of the WBFPRS .
: For clinical use , we found no grounds to switch from 1 faces scale to another when 1 of the scales is in use .
CONTEXT : Numerous faces scales have been developed for the measurement of  pain intensity in children .
It remains unclear whether any one of the faces scales is better for a particular purpose with regard to validity , reliability , feasibility , and preference .
OBJECTIVES : To summarize and systematic ally review faces pain scales most commonly used to obtain self-report of pain intensity in children for evaluation of reliability and validity and to compare the scales for preference and utility .
An investigation of the placebo effect and age-related factors in the report of needle pain from venipuncture in children
Abstract To examine the potential role for a placebo cream in reducing reported needle pain severity in children , and the impact of age‐related factors on pain self‐report , a convenience sample of 117 children scheduled for venipuncture were r and omly assigned to one of three treatments : ( a ) placebo cream with the suggestion that it might help reduce needle pain , ( b ) placebo cream with no indication as to the cream 's purpose , and ( c ) no cream ( control group ) . In allocation to treatment , children were stratified by age group , ( 3–7 , 8–11 , 12–17 years ) . They rated their needle pain severity ( both predicted and reported ) using the Faces Pain Scale , and rated their anxiety about the procedure using the Children 's Anxiety and Pain Scale . Children in the cream groups were also asked whether they thought the cream had helped . Using video‐tapes , an independent observer , blind to the placebo manipulation , rated each child 's reaction to the needle . For the two groups receiving cream , 83 % of those children told it might help stated that they believed it did , as compared with only 33 % of children who received the cream but were told nothing of its purpose . These beliefs , however , were not reflected in self‐report ratings of pain which showed no statistically significant treatment effect . Similarly , children who gave higher preprocedural anxiety ratings were no more likely to report less pain as a result of receiving the cream . There was , however , a treatment effect on the observer 's ratings : children receiving cream plus suggestion were assigned significantly lower ratings of pain‐related behaviour than those children who received the cream alone . While venipuncture was associated with only mild levels of pain , younger children , irrespective of treatment group , did report more pain than older children . Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that 60 % of the variance in self‐reported pain severity scores could be accounted for by how much the child thought the needle would hurt , how anxious the child was about receiving the needle , gender ( higher pain ratings associated with girls ) , and estimated body surface area ( higher pain ratings associated with smaller bodies ) . We conclude that the efficacy of placebo treatments for needle pain in children may depend on the suggestion of a possible benefit rather than upon treatment application per se
All 4 faces pain scales were found to be adequately supported by psychometric data .
When given a choice between faces scales , children preferred the WBFPRS .
Confounding of pain intensity with affect caused by use of smiling and crying anchor faces is a disadvantage of the WBFPRS .
: For clinical use , we found no grounds to switch from 1 faces scale to another when 1 of the scales is in use .
CONTEXT : Numerous faces scales have been developed for the measurement of  pain intensity in children .
It remains unclear whether any one of the faces scales is better for a particular purpose with regard to validity , reliability , feasibility , and preference .
OBJECTIVES : To summarize and systematic ally review faces pain scales most commonly used to obtain self-report of pain intensity in children for evaluation of reliability and validity and to compare the scales for preference and utility .