How is pain measured?

Author: SCIRE Community Team | Reviewer: Patricia Mills | Published: 12 April 2017 | Updated: 18 October 2017, 10 October 2024

Since pain is a personal experience, the only way to measure pain is by asking you about your pain. One of the most common ways of measuring pain is using a simple scale from 0 to 10 (0 is “no pain” and 10 is “the worst pain”). There are also a number of questionnaires and other rating scales used to measure pain.

Other common questions about pain may include:

Where is the pain located?
What does the pain feel like? (Is it sharp, dull, or achy? or like tingling, pins and needles, or burning?)
What makes the pain worse or better?
How does the pain change throughout the day?
How easily is pain provoked and how long does it last once started?
How much does the pain interfere with your life?

These questions can help your healthcare team identify new pains, monitor changes over time, and determine if treatments are working.

Six cartoon faces showing a spectrum of expressions from happy at a rating of 0 to sad at a rating of 10.

The Wong-Baker FACES® Pain Rating Scale is a tool to measure pain intensity.⁶