Investigations and pain management guidelines

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Tools, techniques and guidelines for acurate diagnosis in pain management

Healthcare professionals must be able to describe a patient's symptoms, aided by the use of diagnostic tools and techniques (where appropriate or possible), with the aim of making an accurate diagnosis.

There are numerous definitions of pain that may assist healthcare professionals in reaching a diagnosis of the cause of a patient's pain (see assessment article from this series).

The diagnosis of acute pain and interventions are usually simple, but this is not usually the case with chronic pain, as the processes of investigation, diagnosis and management are often complex and lengthy.

Investigations and diagnosis of the underlying cause of pain are components of the pain assessment process. There is no single 'test' for pain but numerous measures can be used. Table 1 lists some commonly used examples.

Table 1. Investigations used to diagnose the cause of pain  

Investigation and management 

The use of strategies and techniques to investigate and diagnose pain are often guided by clinical practice guidelines (Box 1) and the expert opinion of the clinical teams.
 There is no single evidence-based document for the management of pain, and it is not included in the Essence of Care. However, there are many published audits, recommendations and clinical practice guidelines specifically about pain and many others that encompass pain as a component of a specific disease/problem, for example, sickle cell disease.