Mental Pain and Suffering: The “Universal Currencies” of the Illness Experience?

Fava et al. [1] have recently proposed mental pain as a transdiagnostic patient-reported outcome measure.A similar claim has been made for suffering [2].The main aims of this paper are: (a) to briefly outline the requirements of an optimal person-centred outcome measure; (b) to compare the features characteristic of mental pain and suffering; and (c) to consider mental pain and suffering as candidates for an optimal person-centred outcome measure.The conceptualisation and measurement of mental pain have been reviewed previously [1,3], and before comparing this with suffering, a brief review will be presented of the conceptualisation and measurement of suffering.