Assessment of Patients With Chronic Pain
Assessment of Patients With Chronic Pain
Given the multidimensional nature of chronic pain, efficacious assessment, and treatment requires a comprehensive, multiaxial approach. Traditional biomedical approaches can be effective only as a starting point for assessment and should be accompanied by interviewing and standardized assessment tools to uncover the potential social, emotional, cognitive, environmental, and behavioural factors that shape the chronic pain experience. Successful treatment of patients with chronic pain can only be accomplished if our assessment efforts focus on the entire person, not just the organic pathology. In this article, we can only highlight the components of such an assessment; more detail is available in a recent volume.
Conclusion
Given the multidimensional nature of chronic pain, efficacious assessment, and treatment requires a comprehensive, multiaxial approach. Traditional biomedical approaches can be effective only as a starting point for assessment and should be accompanied by interviewing and standardized assessment tools to uncover the potential social, emotional, cognitive, environmental, and behavioural factors that shape the chronic pain experience. Successful treatment of patients with chronic pain can only be accomplished if our assessment efforts focus on the entire person, not just the organic pathology. In this article, we can only highlight the components of such an assessment; more detail is available in a recent volume.
