To decide how to treat your pain, your doctor needs to assess you. The assessment of your pain will vary according to the type of painful condition you have and whether you are visiting your general practitioner, specialist or a pain clinic. Your doctor may use a number of tests and techniques to try to understand what your pain is like, how it is affecting you, and what its possible cause may be. They may use Pain Scales and detailed questionnaires combined with a physical examination.
As well as assessing the pain itself, your doctor may occasionally need to send you for further tests to determine the underlying cause of the pain. Some examples are blood tests, X-rays, a CT Scan, an MRI scan and a nerve conduction study.
