Table 1.

Description of the 10 measures of mental pain

	Self-reported scale	Description	Other versions of the scale	Conceptual framework of the measure	Initial purpose for which the measure was developed	Number of studies citing the scale*
The Psychological Pain Assessment ScalePPAS) Shneidman 1999	Yes	11 items VAS Rating of TAT-like pictures History of suicide Free essay No final scoring		Shneidman’s theory of the suicidal mind	To explore the relation between a suicidal act and mental pain	9
The Psychache Scale Holden 2001	Yes	13 items scored on a Likert scale		Shneidman’s theory of the suicidal mind	To explore the relation between a suicidal act and mental pain	85
The Orbach and Mikulincer Mental Pain Scale Orbach and Mikulincer 2003	Yes	44 items scored on a Likert scale	41 items (cited by Levinger 2015 but not validated) 40 items (Orbach, unpublished) 31 items (Tossani, 2019) 8 items (Casanova, 2021)	No a priori conceptual framework. Items developed from a survey based on grounded theory principles and qualitative content analysis to propose a comprehensive definition of this experience	To explore the relation between a suicidal act and mental pain	44
The Tolerance of Mental Pain Scale Orbach 2004	Yes	20 items scored on a Likert scale	10 items (Meerwijk, 2019)	No conceptual framework	To explore the relation between a suicidal act and mental pain	11
The Physical and Psychological Pain-VAS Olié 2009	Yes	3 dimensions of physical pain and 3 dimensions of psychological pain each evaluated by a VAS (scored from 0 to 10) +1 VAS evaluating suicidal ideation and one Likert scale evaluating the frequency of suicidal ideation No final scoring		Inspired by the measurement of physical pain	To explore the relation between a suicidal act and mental pain	21
The Mee-Bunney Psychological Assessment Pain Scale Mee and Bunney 2011	Yes	10 items scored on a Likert scale		Inspired by the measurement of physical pain and the Shneidman theory of the suicidal mind	To predict and prevent of suicide in routine clinical practice	11
The Three-dimensional Psychological Pain scale Li 2014	Yes	17 items scored on a Likert scale		No conceptual framework	To predict and prevent suicide in depressed patients	16
The Mental Pain Questionnaire Fava 2016	Yes	10 questions with dichotomous response format (ie, yes/no)		No conceptual framework	To explore the experience of mental pain in patients with mental disorder	7
The Unbearable Psychache Scale Pachkowski 2019	Yes	3 items scored on a Likert scale		Shneidman’s theory of the suicidal mind	To predict and prevent suicide in routine clinical practice	2
The Psychic Pain Scale Lewis 2020	Yes	12 items scored on a Likert scale	Original version of 20 items (Fowler, 2007, unpublished)	Malstberger’s theory of the suicidal mind	To explore the relation between a suicidal act and mental pain	2

*One study could have used several measures.

TAT, thematic apperception test; VAS, Visual Analogue Scale.