Pain is an internal, subjective experience that cannot be measured by the use of physiologic markers or bioassays. The assessment of pain, therefore, relies largely (often exclusively) on the use of self-report. What is more, individual differences in pain sensitivity have long remained a perplexing and challenging clinical problem. For instance, pain assessment can often vary among individuals based on patient demographic (e.g., culture, gender) and facial expression cues. Therefore self-report measures following a multidimensional approach aim at filling this gap with determination of the following: chronicity, severity, quality, associated factors, and location.In special populations, limited cognitive or language skills may influence pain measures, as may the positive or negative consequences of an individual’s behaviors associated with pain. More recently, real-time data capture using electronically based pain assessments (e.g., pain apps) represents another promising method for the field.
