Methods for the assessment of pain in the clinical environment

The present article reviews the main methods used to evaluate pain in humans. This evaluation may be done by physiological, behavioural and self-evaluation methods. The first tools have the problem of lack of specificity and they may often give false positive results and be influenced by many clinical entities. The second group is useful in populations who are unable to give oral evaluation, but they require a strict observational procedure. The third instruments are the most commonly used, but patients may misunderstand what health professionals are asking them. In spite of their limitations, visual analogue scales, verbal rating scales and multidimensional questionnaires are the most useful in the clinical setting.