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Measurement Scale for Pain

Pain assessment allows doctors to understand the type and degree of a patient's pain and to decide on the proper treatment, according to Beth Israel Medical Center's HealingChronicPain.org website. A variety of pain measurement scales exist to help patients articulate their pain levels.

  1. Visual Analog Scale

    • A visual analog scale, or VAS, rates the patient's pain as a point on a graph, according to the Pain Research Center at the University of Utah.

    Verbal Rating Scale

    • A verbal rating scale, or VRS, asks patients to describe their pain in words. The Pain Research Center lists a 5-point scale from "no pain" to "very severe pain" as one example.

    Numerical Rating Scale

    • Patients use a numerical rating scale, or NRS, to assign a number to their pain level, according to the Pain Research Center.

    EPCA-2

    • The eOrthopod website mentions the Elderly Pain Caring Assessment, or EPCA-2, as a scale for patients who cannot speak. Health professionals rate facial expressions and body language on a scale from 0 to 4.

    Other Methods

    • Other types of scales use pictures of facial expressions, numbers in a grid of boxes, or ratings of the pain's impact on everyday tasks.

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