Assessment of chronic pain is not as straightforward as acute pain as patients often have accompanying anxiety and depression. They may exhibit somatic preoccupation and develop low self-esteem. The assessment should include psychological assessment in addition to the pain assessment. Failure to identify all the associated factors may lead to inadequate treatment. The best way to achieve this is through a multidisciplinary team. The patient should be made aware that complete pain cure is unlikely, and they should be involved in decision making and goal setting.

The assessment should include proper history taking as mentioned in the previous chapters. This should also include assessment of psychiatric comorbidity and factors associated with pain. An assessment should be made for risk of addiction. Functional assessment should be done to ascertain limitations and scope of improvement. History taking has been dealt with in the previous chapters. A more detailed psychiatric assessment and psychosocial factors will be discussed in this chapter.

Objectives of psychological evaluation of chronic pain: