Checklists

Accurate information about the course of the pain is the most crucial and important step towards successful treatment. This requires patience, effort, sometimes even detective-like investigations, and in particular, sometimes revisions and "erasings" of the initial picture.

The most important steps are:

• The patient must gather information about their pain themselves.
• The information must be passed on to the doctor.
• The doctor must be interested in the information, engage with the patient, obtain the information using appropriate techniques and methods, and compile the information.
• Patient and doctor must constantly re-gather and verify the information, and subsequently relate it to the information initially collected, revising it if necessary.

Many sufferers are often reluctant to share their own observations. They themselves usually don't realize that it's not about offering interpretations and explanations, but simply about systematically recording their own observations about the course of the pain.

Pain questionnaires

Pain questionnaires are designed to guide patients in recalling and stating the specific characteristics of various pain conditions, thus enabling targeted answers to questions during the doctor-patient consultation. For persistent pain, a pain diary should always be used. Without such a foundation, every pain diagnosis and treatment remains vague and not rationally comprehensible. The pain diary also serves to ensure continuous monitoring of pain levels

• Success and
• Progress monitoring

treatment is possible. Keeping a blood pressure diary or blood sugar log is standard practice for people suffering from high blood pressure or diabetes mellitus. It is also now standard practice to keep a pain diary for people with pain disorders.

The exchange of information is essential for paving the way to effective therapy. For example, when fitting new glasses, the ophthalmologist must try out different lenses until they find the optimal lens for the individual patient. The process is similar in pain therapy, although it sometimes takes longer to find and adjust the right and tolerable therapy for a patient.