Keeping a Chronic Pain Journal

Pain management specialists are the most skilled healthcare professionals when it comes to diagnosing and treating chronic pain. But, they are not magicians. Their ability to provide you with the best possible care requires feedback from you, the patient. And unfortunately, “my back is bothering me worse than ever,” won’t help your provider all that much when trying to determine the true cause of your chronic pain. To help with this, pain management experts recommend keeping a consistent, written record of your pain experience. This is referred to as a pain journal.

Why Pain Journals Work

Your provider needs detailed data to plot out the causes and triggers of your chronic pain and build a treatment plan. When he/she asks how you have been in the past month or two, you need to be ready to provide specifics. Your provider will be looking for triggers, stresses, and patterns. The more detailed you can be about the factors that seem to influence your pain, the better.

By regularly keeping a journal of your pain experiences, your provider will have access to comprehensive, real time information that can be invaluable to determining the best course of treatment.

What to Keep in Your Pain Journal

An accurate record of your pain will help your doctor give you the best treatment.

• Indicate whether your pain interrupts daily activities like walking, working, or sleeping
• Note what medications you took, when you took them, how much relief they provided, and for how long
• Describe other treatments you may have tried (yoga, herbal remedies, nonprescription drugs), and whether they provided any relief
• Note any side effects of pain medicine
• Keep track of anything that makes the pain improve (better when you are sitting instead of standing, better after a hot shower, etc.)

Consistency is the key. If you make notes in your journal on a regular basis (several times a week), you’ll have a complete picture of your pain experience and patterns will emerge.

Watch for Surprises and Patterns 

You may notice some unusual connections. The stress of making dinner in the evening may cause that stabbing pain to return, or an argument with your daughter may make your back hurt more than usual.

One female patient found her pain journal invaluable for keeping track of her fibromyalgia. “I saw that my pain would peak at certain times of the day,” she says. “Even when I was on pain medication, I still found the pain had an upward climb at the end of the day. I was able to take that to the doctor, and when he looked at it he said ‘It’s clear that you pain medicine is not getting you through the day. We need to do something about that spike.’ He changed my medication and things improved.”