Assessment of pain perception in clinical practice

Abstract

With pain a frequent precipitant in individuals seeking manual therapy, it is important for therapists to adequately assess pain. At one level, pain forms an important part of the diagnostic assessment. It is suggested that a simple, reliable and quantitative pain measure be used in patients who present with routine problems. At another level, when the therapist is presented with clients in whom pain does not make sense in terms of its pattern, distribution, history or features, it is advisable to go beyond a simple pain intensity measure.