ASSESSMENT OF PAIN: ACCEPT THE PATIENT'S DESCRIPTION AND REASSESSMENT
Comprehensive clinical assessment is an absolute prerequisite for successful treatment. The important principles involved in the assessment of pain are:

• accept the patient's description
• assess the pain carefully

history, examination, investigation

• assess each pain
• assess the extent of the patient's disease
• assess the other factors which may influence pain

physical, psychological, social, cultural, spiritual
• reassess
Accept the patient's description-The patient's description of the type and severity of pain must be accepted as true. Pain is always subjective and patients' pain is what they say it is and not what others think it ought to be. This is necessary if there is to be trust in the doctor-patient relationship; if the doctor is disbelieving or disinterested the patient may compensate by not reporting pain or by exaggerating it.
Reassessment-Repeated review of a patient's pain is as important as the initial assessment. Pain not responding satisfactorily to treatment may indicate the diagnosis was incorrect or that other factors, such as depression, require therapy. As cancer is a progressive disease, new or more extensive pain can be anticipated, emphasising the need for continuing reassessment.
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