title: Assessing pain as the fifth vital sign.
abstract: Pain is the most common reason why patients seek medical attention; however, pain is often underassessed because of clinician, system, and patient barriers. Proper pain assessment can improve outcomes, prevent adverse effects and psychosocial complications, and decrease healthcare costs. Pain assessment should include a complete medical history, a thorough patient interview and examination, evaluation of comorbidities, consideration of differential diagnoses, and performance of diagnostic tests. Osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, and low-back pain have specific characteristics that can help clinicians make the appropriate diagnosis.
authors: Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, East Lansing, USA.
authors: Gary E
authors: GE
authors: Ruoff
mesh_terms: D005356:Fibromyalgia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000175:diagnosis; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010147:Pain Measurement