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Pain History

There are many methods of taking a pain history, and as long as your history is thorough and systematic, it does not matter which you use.  We will look at one common method, the PQRST method for assessing pain.

Once you have established that a person has pain, for each pain, you should establish the following five characteristics (some example questions for each are given):

P = Provokes - what causes the pain?  what makes it better / worse?

Q = Quality - what does it feel like? Can you describe the pain? eg Sharp / dull                        stabbing / cutting / burning / achey / crushing / tightness etc.

R = Radiates - does the pain go anywhere else?  does it move around? 

S = Severity - How bad is the pain?  Various methods to evaluate eg pain score

T = Time - When did the pain start?  How long does it last? Constant / comes                              and goes?     

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Last updated July 2004 --------------------------------------------