Diagnosis

During your first visit, your doctor will ask you questions about:

• when your pain started
• location of your pain
• how your pain feels (for instance, does it feel like a sharp stabbing pain, a steady burning, or a dull ache?)
• what makes your pain better or worse
• how the pain affects your activities of daily living (for instance, bathing, dressing, and eating)
• all of the medicines that you have ever used to treat your pain (both prescription and over-the-counter)
• any side effects you may have from these medicines.

Your doctor may ask you to rate the intensity of your pain on a scale from 0 to 10. He or she may also ask you questions to find out if you are depressed. Being depressed is quite common among patients with chronic pain. For some patients, though, the depression comes first. The chronic pain may be caused by or be part of  the depression. In fact, many people who are depressed complain about pain problems, such as frequent headaches, back pain, or stomach pain, rather than depression. The only way your doctor can accurately diagnose and treat your problem is for you to answer your doctor's questions honestly.