The classification and assessment of pain

Abstract

One of the most challenging and perplexing issues facing researchers and practitioners who study and treat pain are the basic ones of how best to define, evaluate, measure, and classify it. Many instruments for assessing and classifying pain have been propagated. Unfortunately, for many years, the dualistic approach that pain is primarily either owing to physical or psychological factors has influenced how pain is conceptualized as a medical entity. Newer classification systems including that developed by the International Association for the Study of Pain and diagnoses (e.g. Pain Disorder in DSM-IV) recognize the complex nature of pain.