How do you talk about pain to your medical team? The words we have to convey a physical sensation are often poor at best, yet being able to provide meaningful information about your pain is critical to being able to find solutions for it.

One of the most useful ways to talk about pain is using the PQRST method, developed and used by nurses to assess patients’ pain situation. What does the acronym stand for? P is provoke, in other words, what seems to cause or increase pain? Q is quality, or the characteristics of your pain, such as dull, throbbing, or burning. R is region, or where the pain is located or seems to emanate from. S is severity, which is basically a ranking of how bad the pain is in relation to other types of pain you might refer to. T is time, which considers such things as when the pain started, and for how long it has lasted.

So before your next visit with your doctor or other members of your medical team who need to understand the pain you’re experiencing, take a moment and think through the following questions to develop a detailed description of your pain. After reviewing the questions, be better prepared to get the help you need by filling out the checklist at the bottom of this page and taking it into the doctor’s office with you.

Provoke: My pain seems to be provoked or made worse (or better) by…. What were you doing when the pain started, and did a specific move or activity seem to start the pain? What activities/action make the pain worse or lessen it? Are there physical positions such as standing, sitting, bending, or twisting that make it better or worse? Does what you eat, or any medications you’ve tried already, have any impact on the pain? Does exercise or rest seem to affect the pain?

Quality: What does my pain feel like?  Would you describe your pain as sharp/intense or dull and “low-level,” more of an ache or soreness? Other descriptions might be stabbing, burning, crushing, throbbing, nauseating, shooting.

Region: Where is the pain located?  Where specifically on your body is the pain located, for example, 3 inches above your elbow on the inner side of your arm, right above the ankle bone on your left leg? Does the pain stay in one small spot or extend out from a central spot? If so, which direction and for how far? Is your pain always in the same spot, or does it seem to move to other locations?

Severity: How bad is the pain?  One way to describe this is on a scale of “1 to 10,” with one being almost no pain and ten being unbearable pain. But another way is to compare it to similar levels of pain, for example, a mild headache, a severe toothache, sore muscles, etc. Another approach is to describe your pain in levels of impact on activities: uncomfortable enough so that you can’t fully enjoy your normal engagements, or bad enough so that you can barely stand? Also, does the level of severity change throughout the day, and if so, how bad is it when the pain is at its worst, and how long do these “worst” episodes last?

Time:  When did the pain begin?  How long did it last (has it lasted)? How often does the pain occur, and does it come on quickly or gradually? Does is occur hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or on a seemingly random basis? Morning, afternoon, evening, or when sleeping? During or after mealtimes (if so, how long after)? Does the pain seem to be seasonal?

Doctor’s Office Checklist: Describing My Pain

Provoke: My pain seems to be provoked or made worse (or better) by….
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Quality: What does my pain feel like?
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Region: Where is the pain located?
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Severity: How bad is the pain?
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Time: When did the pain begin?
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What else I want you to know about my pain:
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