How accurately do people with chronic pain remember how much pain they felt during the previous week?

Details

Patients’ retrospective reports of pain help physicians and other health professionals decide on future treatment plans. However, memory of pain can be inaccurate and prone to overestimation.

This observational study examined factors associated with the accuracy of pain recall in 93 chronic pain patients, comparing retrospective estimates with pain ratings collected over 1 week. Patients were initially evaluated by a physician and completed a comprehensive pain questionnaire and an SCL-90. All patients were asked to monitor their pain intensity every hour for 1 week. At the end of that week, each patient was asked to estimate their average pain intensity for 4 times during the day over the previous week. These estimates were compared with the actual mean pain ratings.

Most patients tended to overestimate their pain intensity. Patients with cervical and low back pain remembered their pain more accurately than patients with headache and abdominal pain. Patients who reported more emotional distress, had conflicts at home, were less active, and relied on medication tended to be the least accurate in remembering their pain.