Pain specialists perform a physical and neurological examination, and review your medical history paying particular attention to pain history. The focus is on your pain, the cause or contributing factors, and quickly managing it. You may be asked many questions about your pain, including:
- On a scale from zero to 10, with 10 being the worse pain imaginable, rate your pain.
- When did pain start? What were you doing when pain started?
- Does pain spread into other areas of the body?
- Is its intensity constant, or is it worse at different times of the day or night?
- What helps to relieve the pain? What makes pain worse?
- What treatments have you tried? What worked? What failed?
- Do you take over-the-counter medications, vitamins, or herbal supplements?
- Do you take prescription medication? If so, what, how much, and how often?
