{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,16]],"date-time":"2026-10-16T22:11:42Z","timestamp":1792188702934,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,21]],"date-time":"2020-11-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1605916800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Medtronic Europe Sarl","award":["independent research grant"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["independent research grant"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Medication Quantification Scale III (MQS) is a tool to represent the negative impact of medication. A reduction in medication can serve as an indicator to evaluate treatment success. However, no cut-off value has yet been determined to evaluate whether a decrease in medication is clinically relevant. Therefore, the objective is to estimate the thresholds for the MQS and morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) that best identify a clinically relevant important improvement for patients. Data from the Discover registry, in which patients with failed back surgery syndrome were treated with high-dose spinal cord stimulation, were used. Patient satisfaction was utilized to evaluate a clinically important outcome 12 months after stimulation. Anchor-based and distribution-based methods were applied to determine the minimal clinical important difference (MCID). Distribution-based methods revealed a value of 4.28 for the MQS and 33.61 for the MME as MCID. Anchor-based methods indicated a percentage change score of 41.2% for the MQS and 28.2% for the MME or an absolute change score of 4.72 for the MQS and 22.65 for the MME. For assessing a treatment outcome, we recommend using the percentage change score, which better reflects a clinically important outcome and is not severely influenced by high medication intake at baseline.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm9113747","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,23]],"date-time":"2020-11-23T11:50:34Z","timestamp":1606132234000},"page":"3747","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":34,"title":["Determining the Minimal Clinical Important Difference for Medication Quantification Scale III and Morphine Milligram Equivalents in Patients with Failed Back Surgery Syndrome"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2271-9855","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lisa","family":"Goudman","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurosurgery, Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 101, 1090 Jette, Belgium"},{"name":"Center for Neurosciences (C4N), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090 Jette, Belgium"},{"name":"STIMULUS Consortium (reSearch and TeachIng neuroModULation Uz bruSsel), Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 101, 1090 Brussels, Belgium"},{"name":"Pain in Motion International Research Group (PAIN), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090 Jette, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ann De","family":"Smedt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Neurosciences (C4N), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090 Jette, Belgium"},{"name":"STIMULUS Consortium (reSearch and TeachIng neuroModULation Uz bruSsel), Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 101, 1090 Brussels, Belgium"},{"name":"Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 101, 1090 Brussels, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5772-8439","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Patrice","family":"Forget","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Applied Health Sciences, NHS Grampian, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB25 2ZD, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0577-5449","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maarten","family":"Moens","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurosurgery, Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 101, 1090 Jette, Belgium"},{"name":"Center for Neurosciences (C4N), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090 Jette, Belgium"},{"name":"STIMULUS Consortium (reSearch and TeachIng neuroModULation Uz bruSsel), Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 101, 1090 Brussels, Belgium"},{"name":"Department of Radiology, Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 101, 1090 Jette, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"979","DOI":"10.2147\/JPR.S92776","article-title":"Failed back surgery syndrome: Current perspectives","volume":"9","author":"Baber","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. 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