Can you measure pain?

Soon I will face a second birth.

Suddenly I wondered if you can measure ‘pain’ somehow?

One pain is worse than the other, but is there a gradation?

Can you measure this and therefore compare pain with each other?

Or do you continue to describe pain with subjective terms such as ‘a lot’, ‘little’…

Asker: astrid, 30 years old

Answer

Dear Astrid,

Pain is a very subjective thing. Some people can handle ‘everything’, some moan about removing a plaster….

Pain is often measured with a ‘VAS’ scale. (Visual Analog Scale) This is a kind of sliding ruler with a scale from 0 to 10 on the back and on the front (which the patients see) a subdivision of: ‘no pain at all’ – ‘pain’ – ‘unbearable pain ‘
For example, the patient can describe a feeling of pain and the doctor is shown a value on the back that can then be compared with other patients or used to register the results of a treatment. You just have to ‘google’ it further.

Or on the following link: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visueel_Analoge-scaling

Good luck with your delivery.

Best regards,

Joris

Can you measure pain?

Answered by

MSc. Pod. George De Schepper

Podiatry Biomechanics Sole Therapy

Artevelde University College

http://www.arteveldehs.be

.

Recent Articles

Related Stories