Elsevier

The Journal of Pain

Volume 9, Issue 4, April 2008, Pages 360-372
The Journal of Pain

Original report
Validation of the Revised Screener and Opioid Assessment for Patients With Pain (SOAPP-R)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2007.11.014Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Abstract

The original Screener and Opioid Assessment for Patients with Pain (SOAPP) is a conceptually derived self-report questionnaire designed to predict aberrant medication-related behaviors among chronic pain patients considered for long-term opioid therapy. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an empirically derived version of the SOAPP (SOAPP-R) that addresses some limitations of the original SOAPP. In successive steps, items were reduced from an initial pool of 142 to a 97-item beta version. The beta version was administered to 283 chronic pain patients receiving long-term opioid therapy. Items were evaluated based on data collected at follow-up, including correlation with the Aberrant Drug Behavior Index (ADBI), derived from interview data, physician ratings, and urine toxicology screens. Twenty-four items were retained and comprise the final SOAPP-R. Coefficient α was .88, and receiver operating characteristics curve analysis yielded an area under the curve of .81 (P < .001). A cutoff score of 18 showed adequate sensitivity (.81) and specificity (.68). The obtained psychometrics, along with the use of a predictive criterion that goes beyond self-report, suggest that the SOAPP-R is an improvement over the original version in screening risk potential for aberrant medication-related behavior among persons with chronic pain.

Perspective

There is a need for a screener for abuse risk in patients prescribed opioids for pain. This study presents a revised version of the SOAPP-R that is empirically derived with good reliability and validity but is less susceptible to overt deception than the original SOAPP version 1.

Key words

Substance abuse
chronic pain
opioids
addiction
aberrant drug behaviors

Cited by (0)

Supported in part by a grant awarded to the first author (DA015617) from the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, and by an unrestricted grant to Inflexxion, Inc, from Endo Pharmaceuticals, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.