Health Professional Assessing and Treating Pain

Due to the variety of sensory and emotional aspects of pain which need to be taken into account for understanding pain within a biopsychosocial framework, it can be stated that health professionals play a particularly important role in assessing the multifactorial presentations of pain and developing the most appropriate interventions.

According to the commonly held modern views of pain discussed in Overton, and De Sousa, linking pain to a noxious stimulus is insufficient for adequately assessing and managing pain. In other words, biomedical tools and interventions have certain limitations and are insufficient for properly assessing and treating pain. Cruccu and Truini (2009) discussed the main tools which can be used by modern health professionals for assessing neuropathic pain. Shedding light upon the innovative laboratory tests and quantitative sensory testing, the scholars emphasized the importance of conducting bedside examinations and using questionnaires for assessing pain. Additionally, Cruccu and Truini discussed the benefits of a new tool, referred to as the Standardized Evaluation of Pain (StEP) which combines the benefits of biomedical testing and interview evaluation. Hadjistavropoulos et al. pointed out the lack of training concerning the impact of psychosocial factors on the communication of pain in clinical settings received by modern health professionals.

Because of the influence of psychosocial factors on pain presentations, biomedical tests can be ineffective for assessing and managing pain, and health professionals who clearly understand the importance of the biopsychosocial framework play an important role in assessing and treating pain.