| Sumario: | Background Patients with pain are more reactive to various types of sensations, not limited to pain alone. A potential useful instrument to assess reactivity is the Kohn Reactivity Scale ( KRS). This study examines the psychometric characteristics of the KRS- Dutch version and its ability to differentiate between subjects with and without pain. Methods Internal consistency, convergent validity, and test-retest reliability of the Dutch translation of the KRS were assessed in 321 pain-free control subjects and different subgroups of this sample. Subsequently, reactivity scores were compared between the pain-free subjects and 291 pain patients who were referred to a pain clinic for treatment. Results Reliability analyses indicated good internal consistency (α ≥ 0.77) and high test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation = 0.95) of the KRS in the control subjects. Validity analyses yielded positive correlations of the KRS with related constructs like pain vigilance and awareness ( r = 0.37), symptom severity ( r = 0.29), and the personality characteristic neuroticism ( r = 0.20). Pain patients had overall significantly higher KRS scores than the pain-free subjects indicating increased reactivity, particularly for the patients with medically unexplained pain. Conclusions These findings indicate that the KRS is a useful instrument to screen for reactivity in pain patients, which may be of particular relevance for those suffering from medically unexplained pain.
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